Clarendon Special Gold Rum

Clarendon Special Gold Rum is a young pot-still Jamaican from the Clarendon distillery in the parish of the same name, a workhorse supplier whose marks range from clean column stock to funky pot-still spirit. At just two years old, this gold expression sits firmly at the simple, everyday end of the range rather than the collectible one.

Made from molasses on pot stills and lightly matured in ex-bourbon oak, it shows vanilla, citrus and a restrained ester and solvent lift, with a nutty, faintly sweet finish. The youth is apparent, and the rum leans alcoholic and straightforward. Bottled unsweetened at 40%, it is built more as an honest, typically Jamaican mixer than a contemplative sipper, doing exactly what an inexpensive island gold rum is meant to do.