Caroni 22 Year Balas Brigade Bhaggan 1998 700mL

This 1998 Caroni is dedicated to Balas "Brigade" Bhaggan, who worked as a cooper at the distillery for 14 years. It belongs to Velier's fourth Employees release and was bottled at a formidable 68.4%.

About This Bottling

Bhaggan's rum is a heavy Trinidad rum, distilled in 1998 on the column still used for the heaviest marks. Six casks were vatted, chosen by Gargano with a panel of Caroni enthusiasts, and bottled in 2020 without dilution, giving 1,158 bottles. As a cooper, Bhaggan would have built and repaired the kind of barrels this rum aged in. At 68.4% it is among the stronger bottles in the series and needs time and water to show well.

Tasting Profile

• Nose: Diesel and hot tar, then dried fruit, honeyed molasses and old leather.
• Palate: Dense and fiery, with bitter caramel, tropical fruit and black pepper.
• Finish: Resinous and very long, on liquorice, oak and a wisp of smoke.

Serving & Food

Pour 15ml into a Glencairn or small tulip glass and give it a good 15 minutes. Add water gradually; it can take a fair amount before the fruit comes out. A cigar makes a good companion, as does a slice of fruit cake.

How to Enjoy

Seasoned rum drinkers who like it heavy, and collectors completing the fourth Employees release.

Product Details

About the Distillery

Caroni's heavy rum was made on column stills from molasses, and it was the heaviest of the distillery's marks that gave it a following among blenders and, later, collectors. After the Trinidad site closed, the story of its rum turned on one discovery. Visiting the island in 2004, Velier's Luca Gargano found the warehouses still stocked with maturing barrels, and the Genoa firm bought the lot. Velier matures its rums in the tropics only, which concentrates them and costs a lot of volume to the angels, and bottles them at or close to cask strength.