Rum Nation Caroni Small Batch Rare Rums 1998

Rum Nation, the Italian house known for its tropical and European two-stage ageing, here turns to the most mythologised name in rum. Caroni closed in 2003, and this small batch draws together several ex-bourbon casks from the 1998 vintage rather than a single barrel, blended and bottled unsweetened at a full 59 percent after roughly 26 years.

The profile sits firmly in the heavy camp, tar and rubber threaded with oak and a distinct whisky-like note that several tasters have remarked on, more savoury than fruity. The palate is tarry and a touch dirty in the way Caroni admirers prize, with oak holding the structure, while the finish turns spicy and woody. Distilled from Trinidadian molasses on the distillery's varied still park and matured in ex-bourbon barrels, it carries the industrial intensity that defines heavy Trinidad without any added sugar to soften it.