The Wild Parrot 1996

The Wild Parrot bottled this 1996 Barbados single cask, a long-aged release in the island's smooth, balanced tradition. Barbados rum marries pot and column distillate into something refined, and at 26 years this one has settled into a notably quiet, dry register. It was bottled unsweetened at 51.2 percent, showing the classic WIRD profile of older Bridgetown stock.

Matured from molasses in ex-bourbon oak, it is reserved and subtle rather than explosive: dried fruit, chocolate, wood and caramel on the nose, then a soft palate of dried fruit, chocolate and spice, finishing on fruit, spice, vanilla and more chocolate. There is not the slightest aggression here, the long ageing leaving gentle dried fruit and soft oak in place of big flavours. One for drinkers who prize elegance and restraint over power, a refined, contemplative Barbados in the vein of older, quieter island bottlings.