Following on the theme of Caroni rums, this bottle from @cormancollins was a rather unique one that I had the pleasure of tasting at @theauldalliance. Reading off the label, the phrase “straight from the barrel” might seem almost odd, given that nearly all aged rums, or spirits for that matter, would have been filled directly from the casks. But in this instance, Corman Collins had taken the literal meaning of the phrase to the next level, having shipped the entire single cask #2247 of HTR Caroni rum distilled in 1998 from @bristolspiritsltd’s warehouses to Corman Collin’s boutique in Belgium.

The cask has since been displayed there, where customers were given the opportunity for a limited time to purchase 20cl or 70cl bottles on demand, or “straight from the cask” as it was aptly labeled. The remaining liquid would be laid to rest in the cask before bottling in 2028, which would have turned 30-years-old by then. It's unclear how many bottles had been filled since, but this would be one of those bottled in 2022, coming in at 24 years of age, at an abv of 64.8%.

On the nose, the 98 Caroni was rather finely balanced between those tarry petrol notes with soft sweet vanilla. To add to that, some red fruits and mangoes were also found beneath those dirty notes, paired with a slight nuttiness, caramel and toffee, and interestingly a hint of balsamic reduction.

On the palate, it was clear this was one strong Caroni, full, punchy, and hits rather hard on the initial palate. There was a nice fizz to the texture which I really liked about it, but almost instantaneously it developed into a completely different rum, caramel, molasses, an assortment of warm toasted nuts, a slight herbal even. The finish was long, relatively simple, filled with notes of dark chocolate and fresh roasted coffee.

This then was a rather nice HTR Caroni, full-bodied, heavy, tarry, but well-balanced enough that the fruitier notes are able to express themselves on the nose and the palate too. And of course I’d be very interested to see the end result and how the liquid might have evolved when the remnants are finally bottled in 2028.

Image Courtesy of @weixiang_liu