Caroni 22 Year Balas Brigade Bhaggan 1998 700mL

Caroni 22 Year Balas "Brigade" Bhaggan 1998 is a single-cask, cask-strength Trinidad rum honouring Balas "Brigade" Bhaggan, a former Caroni worker, as part of Velier's Employees 4th Release. Distilled in 1998, bottled around two decades later, it is a high-strength collector bottle with the full weight of the closed distillery's heavy-rum house style intact.

From the Producer

Caroni was the state-owned sugar-and-rum complex in central Trinidad that operated its own column stills alongside sugar production for most of the 20th century. Closed by the Trinidad and Tobago government in 2002, the distillery's remaining casks were eventually acquired by Italian independent bottler Velier, working with Caribbean partner LCU, who released them slowly as single-cask and small-batch bottlings from 2004 onward and effectively built the modern cult reputation for "Caroni" as a style. The Employees series is dedicated to the people who worked at Caroni in its final decades, with each bottle named after a real employee and presented in Velier's house style — single cask, no dilution, no chill-filtration, no added colouring, and full bottle-by-bottle provenance. The 1998 vintage in the Employees series sits in the older, more concentrated tier of remaining Caroni stock, showing the high-ester, tarry, dark-caramel profile that defines the distillery at full proof.

Tasting Profile

• Nose: Hydrocarbon, warm spice, honeyed molasses, dried fruit and old oak.
• Palate: Muscular and concentrated, with dark caramel, tar, tropical fruit, pepper and leather.
• Finish: Long, hot and resinous, with sweet spice and dry oak.

Best For

Collectors of the Caroni Employees series and drinkers who enjoy uncompromising full-proof rum.

Product Details