T.D.L Plantation 2008

This is Maison Ferrand's Plantation line drawing on TDL, the living Trinidad distillery, with a 2008 vintage matured 12 years and finished in Cognac and Armagnac wood, the French brandy casks shaping much of the character. Bottled as a single cask at 49.5 percent, it shows the lighter, column-distilled Trinidad style dressed in the house's signature brandy-cask approach.

The nose runs to oak, leather and the Cognac and Armagnac influence, while the palate is comparatively dry with raisin, mango and almond. The finish brings dried apricot and more raisin over barrel char. Distilled from Trinidadian molasses on a column still, this leans into the fragrant, fruit-and-spice side of Trinidad rather than the heavy tarry mark, a brandied sipper to enjoy. As with the wider Plantation range it sits in the dosed camp rather than the strict no-additives tradition, so it reads richer than a bone-dry independent bottling.