Thompson Bros. Worthy Park Pot Distilled Jamaican Rum JMWP 2008

Thompson Bros., the Scottish bottler behind Dornoch, selected this single cask of Worthy Park from the 2008 vintage, bottling it at 14 years and 54.5%. Worthy Park is the clean, precise estate of St. Catherine, and this JMWP mark shows its polished, moderate-ester character.

Distilled on the estate's modern Forsyths pot still from molasses and matured in ex-bourbon wood, it leads with banana, tropical fruit and pineapple, the estate's hallmark, then a palate of pear, banana and spice over toasted oak and nuts. The finish brings black tea, pear, vanilla and apple. Certified unsweetened, it is characterful but relatively tame for the island, sitting between funky rum and aged malt whisky, which fits Thompson Bros.' whisky lineage. This is a classy, slightly dry sipper rather than a wild ester bomb, well suited to drinkers who like fruit-forward Worthy Park with manageable funk and strength.