Swell de Spirits Clarendon Wild Nature Series #15 EMB 2010

Swell de Spirits bottled this Clarendon as part of its Wild Nature series, drawing on the Clarendon distillery in central Jamaica, a workhorse house running both pot and column whose pot-still marks can turn distinctly funky. Marque EMB, fifteen years in ex-bourbon oak and chosen as a single cask, lands firmly in pot-still territory with an intense, herbal character.

The nose mixes tropical fruit with spice, a medicinal edge and the resinous note of young wood. On the palate that medicinal thread becomes a pronounced minty, menthol coolness running alongside the tropical fruit, and the finish carries the herbal, spicy and menthol notes long and clean. Bottled without added sugar at a fierce 66.9%, this is an uncompromising overproof Jamaican where the alcohol and the menthol push hard together. It wants water and patience, and rewards drinkers who enjoy Clarendon at its most assertive and aromatic.