The Last Caroni is the 39th and final bottling in Velier's Caroni series: heavy Trinidad rum distilled in 1996, aged 23 years and bottled at full proof in 2019. With it the Genoa bottler closed a programme that began with its first visit to the distillery in 2004.
About This Rum
Only heavy casks went into this one. Twenty-four barrels of 1996 HTR were blended, having matured in Trinidad until 2008 before being shipped to Guyana, where they stayed until 2019. That long tropical ageing cost the casks most of their volume, roughly 85% lost to evaporation. The rum was bottled at 61.9% in an edition of 5,522, with no sugar or colouring added.
Tasting Profile
- Nose: Dark molasses, tar and leather, then tropical fruit and old oak.
- Palate: Heavy and oily, with burnt sugar, resin, dried fruit, a medicinal note and firm wood.
- Finish: Long and dry, rubber and spice lingering with a touch of caramel.
Serving & Food
Pour it neat, unchilled, into a small nosing glass and give it time before the first sip. Water brings out the fruit behind the tar. Try it with salted caramel tart, a strong washed-rind cheese, or smoked eel on rye.
How to Enjoy
Marking the end of the Velier Caroni series, or pouring beside the Tasting Gang to compare pure heavy rum with a mixed blend.
Product Details
Producer: Caroni / Velier
Distillery: Caroni, Trinidad
Expression: HTR Blend "The Last"
Style: Heavy Trinidad Rum, blend of 24 casks
Maturation: Trinidad until 2008, then Guyana
Vintage: 1996
Age: 23 years old
Bottled: 2019
Edition: 5,522 bottles
ABV: 61.9%
Volume: 700mL
About the Distillery
Caroni made more than one kind of rum. Its column stills could run light marks for everyday blends and heavy marks with far more flavour, and it was the heavy style, oily and tarry, that gave the distillery its reputation abroad. Collectors still label bottlings HTR or LTR for that reason.
The end came with the collapse of Trinidad's sugar industry. As local cane dwindled, the distillery depended on imported molasses; in 2001 the government sold a 49% stake in the holding company to Angostura, and a year later the stills went cold.