CoR Clarendon Ed. 3 1996

The Colours of Rum is a Polish purist bottler of cask strength single casks with no additives, and this is its third edition Clarendon, distilled in 1996 and aged 25 years off a single wooden pot still. Clarendon's old pot still marks sit high on the ester scale, and a quarter century in the tropics piles oak on top.

Distilled from molasses and matured in ex-bourbon wood under Caribbean heat, it opens woody and glue-tinged with tropical fruit and spice, then turns herbal, minty and spicy across the palate with black tea bitterness, before a dry finish of dried and tropical fruit over oak. Bottled at 67% and unsweetened, it is intense and demanding, the freshness of menthol balancing the heavy wood. This is a powerful, dry old Clarendon for seasoned drinkers who want the high-ester style with full tropical age and serious punch.