Watt Rum Clarendon Jamaican Rum 2004

Watt Rum bottled this 2004 Clarendon as a single cask, aged sixteen years in ex-bourbon and presented at cask strength 57.1%. Clarendon is a Clarendon parish workhorse whose pot still marks can be deeply funky, and this is an uncompromising, old-school industrial example, far from the sweet and fruity side of the house.

Distilled on pot still from molasses, it noses on menthol, glue, burnt sugar and licorice, the funk leaning hard into solvent territory. The palate is glue, metallic, apple and blackberry, the finish bitter, metallic, leathery and appley, with very active wood layering char, cigar box and balsamic notes over sparse dried fruit and lemon zest. At 57.1% it is intense and demanding rather than easy. Unsweetened and bottled from one barrel, this is a serious, polarising Clarendon for experienced drinkers who actively seek the metallic, industrial, funky end of aged Jamaican rum rather than rounded sweetness.