The Auld Alliance – Corman Collins Caroni 1998

Caroni sat on the Caroni plain in Trinidad with its own adjoining sugar factory until production ceased around 2003, and it has since become the most mythologised name in rum, its forgotten casks rescued by Velier and bottled in a finite run. This 1998 vintage, selected by The Auld Alliance with Corman Collins, is a single cask drawn at cask strength after twenty-one years.

Distilled from molasses on Caroni's column still and matured in ex-bourbon oak, it carries the archetypal industrial markers, tar, burnt rubber and asphalt on the nose with a thread of solvent, then leather, smoke and caramelised wood on the long finish. What sets it apart is the roundness underneath, ripe tropical fruit, banana and a cooling mint that soften the workshop edge without erasing it. The alcohol sits well for 61%, making this a dirty Caroni with unusual poise, best given time in the glass.