Boozehounds Double Retorts Double Retorts 2000 West Indies Rum Distillery WIRD 24 Years 70cl 52,3%Vol

Bottled by Boozehounds, this Double Retorts release is a 2000 vintage from the West Indies Rum Distillery in Barbados, aged twenty-four years as a single cask in the Rockley style. WIRD is the island's volume producer, founded in 1893 and home to its most varied still park. Rockley describes a medium-to-heavy, smoky and medicinal character with honey rather than a single physical still, and this bottling pushes that toward whisky territory.

Distilled from molasses and finished in whisky casks, it takes a strong smoky stamp from the wood. The aroma carries smoke, tropical fruit, honey and vanilla, the palate turns smoky and spiced with a clear whisky and toasted edge, and the finish stays smoky and herbal over oak. The peated-whisky influence sits front and centre, atypical for Barbados, yet enough honeyed fruit survives to keep it rum at heart, a rewarding curiosity for those who enjoy smoke and oak at 52.3%.