Romdeluxe New Make No 8 – Luidas Vale WPL – CJN

Romdeluxe New Make No 8 captures Worthy Park's Luidas Vale spirit at the moment it leaves the pot still, before any cask gets a say. The Danish bottler is known for chasing high-ester Jamaican character, and here it works from fresh cane juice rather than the usual molasses, presenting the distillate raw and overproof at 65% for drinkers who want to taste the spirit itself.

Unaged and uncoloured, it shows vanilla and coconut with a pronounced flowery note, balanced reasonably well for something this young and this strong. There is a savoury, sulphurous, faintly bitter streak running underneath that some will read as authentic estate funk and others will find sharp on its own. That edge makes it a natural for a daiquiri, where the citrus and dilution pull the fruit forward and tame the rougher corners. Bottled unsweetened, it is a working spirit, not a polished sipper.