The Caroni Distillery in Trinidad and Tobago was established in 1918, and was operated at near full capacity until 1993. Unfortunately, due to industry consolidation, rum production at the facility began to decline late in the 20th century and the distillery was closed in 2002. As a matter of interest, the consolidation of the rum industry during the last two centuries is amply illustrated in Trinidad and Tobago where there this small country featured 50 distilleries at the turn of the 19th century. One hundred and fifty years later (in 1950) only 8 had survived, and today there is but one, Angostura. It seems a pity that so much tradition and history has vanished. Although I guess we can count ourselves lucky that some of the rum barrels from the Caroni distillery are still finding their way into the market place.
The Rum Nation Caroni 1998 is one such offering from the folks at Rum Nation. This is an old-style heavy column still rum which was distilled in 1998 and aged for nine years in American Oak casks on the Caribbean Island of Trinidad. From this tropical locale, the rum was transported to Europe for further aging in refill American Oak (bourbon) casks which had been also previously used to age Rum Peruno (8YO).
Here is a link to the review of the #49 spirit on my Rum Howler Top 100 Spirits Countdown.
#49 – Rum Nation Caroni 1998 (Bottled in 2014 @ 55%)
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You may follow my Countdown list of the 100 Best Spirits here: The Rum Howler 2015 – Top 100 Spirits
Cask No. 16 is according to the company website,
Amazingly, the manner in which the agave juice is extracted from the piñas has an impact upon the distilled flavour of the final tequila. Tequila distilled from the juice which was extracted from a stone wheel Tahona has a noticeably softer and earthier flavour than tequila distilled from the juice extracted by a roller mill. Part of the reason for the difference in flavour may be that when the juice which has been extracted from the piñas which were crushed by the Tahona Wheel, the left over fibers from those piñas are placed in the fermentation vats along with the juice. The fiber and juice mixture is fermented for 72 hours in a wooden fermentation vat, where apparently some of the flavours from the fibrous material makes its way into the fermented wash.
When each separately distilled whisky is ready, they are blended and then aged for a second period of time to allow the different whiskies flavours to marry in the barrel prior to bottling. Incidentally, all of the barrels used for maturation of the whisky are refill America Bourbon oak barrels. As all of the mashing, distillation, aging and blending was done at the same Bangalore distillery in India, the whisky is a true single malt which represents the fusion of two different whiskies.
The Appleton Estate Master Blender’s Legacy was produced to recognize three generations of Appleton Estate Master Blenders, Joy Spence, the current Master Blender, Owen Tulloch, the previous Master Blender, and, David Morrison the current protégé of Joy Spence. All three blenders have set their mark on this luxurious rum which is a blend of rums which range in age from 18 years to 30 years.
The Rum Howler Blog 