Cadenhead‘s Clarendon Clarendon Distillery 2010

Cadenhead's selected this single cask of Clarendon from the 2010 vintage, bottling it at 12 years and 55%. Clarendon, the workhorse of central Jamaica running both pot and column, shows its herbal, medicinal pot-still side here rather than its fruitiest face.

Matured in ex-bourbon wood, it leans savoury and layered. Tropical fruit, leather, herbal and medicinal notes lead the nose, with vineyard peach and floral touches, then a palate of tea, fruit, wood and herbs. The finish brings menthol, barrel, leather and a herbal close. Sweetening status is unconfirmed in the data, so it reads as a dry, spirit-led pour. There is a bitterness and edge to it that rewards patient nosing more than casual sipping, and time in the glass adds flowers, violets and menthol over the molasses-vanilla base. It suits a drinker who enjoys Clarendon's herbal character and does not mind a dry, slightly bitter frame.