The Whisky Agency Caroni Automobil HTR 1997

The Whisky Agency, the German bottler known for its artful labels and careful selections, presents this Caroni Automobil from the 1997 vintage. Caroni closed in 2003, and its HTR distillate is finite and collectible. This single cask was bottled at a moderate 49.2 percent, a strength that gives a gentler, more polished reading of the heavy Trinidad style than the wildest full-proof releases.

Distilled from molasses and matured in ex-bourbon oak, it shows drier wood and a more technical, restrained character: woody, spicy and fruity on the nose, then tar, concentrated and astringent notes with tropical fruit on the palate, finishing heavy, peppery and woody. The classic tar and rubber are present but dialled back behind tobacco, herbs and oak. A herbal, oak-driven Caroni for those who like the distillery's aromatics but want something more composed and lower in proof than the heaviest bottlings.