Rattray Caroni 15 year old

Thanks to JaRiMi, one of the very few honest and rum knowledgable experts about - and an advocate of a Trinidadian style. The rum to cause this category: Scarlet Ibis.
Post Reply
Hassouni
Minor God
Posts: 438
Joined: Sun May 05, 2013 5:58 pm

Rattray Caroni 15 year old

Post by Hassouni »

A local shop has this for $80, and I'm very intrigued. It being taxes-for-fack-all season in the US, my booze buying budget is zero if not negative, but wondering if anyone else has tried or heard of it?

http://www.adrattray.com/collection/rum

(It's the only indy rum that shop had, but they have a lot of indy scotches, as well as Longrow peated for $50, which seems like a steal)
JaRiMi
Admiral
Posts: 313
Joined: Tue Mar 10, 2009 11:14 am

Post by JaRiMi »

Sorry for the late reply - I'd trust this bottling to be of high quality, and typically representative of Caroni's rather unique style (with a hint of motor oil).

All the Caroni indy-bottlers have bottled recently is coming from the same source more or less, and none have been bad. Price is good, considering this is a dead distillery never to produce again.
Hassouni
Minor God
Posts: 438
Joined: Sun May 05, 2013 5:58 pm

Post by Hassouni »

Well, I picked up a bottle. Will report back soon
JaRiMi
Admiral
Posts: 313
Joined: Tue Mar 10, 2009 11:14 am

Post by JaRiMi »

Hassouni wrote:Well, I picked up a bottle. Will report back soon
Hello! I was wondering if you have gotten around to opening this bottling, and what was your opinion of the spirit please?
Hassouni
Minor God
Posts: 438
Joined: Sun May 05, 2013 5:58 pm

Post by Hassouni »

I have not yet, I will be tonight
Hassouni
Minor God
Posts: 438
Joined: Sun May 05, 2013 5:58 pm

Post by Hassouni »

OK, I tried this tonight as part of a rum tasting I held for some friends:

My friend's homemade white rum and spiced rum
Scarlet Ibis
Berry Bros Jamaican 10 Year (wow! review of that to come soon as well)
The Rattray Caroni 15
Doorly's XO
Sea Wynde
Smith & Cross

All unadulterated rums, all great quality. The Berry's JA and Caroni were opened tonight.

I will save the real review for those when I have some alone time, but the Caroni was astonishing - pretty tame nose, but explosive palate. Really unusual set of flavors, complex, intriguing, and delicious.
Hassouni
Minor God
Posts: 438
Joined: Sun May 05, 2013 5:58 pm

Post by Hassouni »

OK, my review:

First impressions:

Nose: delicate until stuck deep in, then acetone, alcohol prickle, wood, very subtle allspice

Taste: alcohol burn, wood, astringency, tannins, papaya towards the finish, extremely subtle smoke (not peaty or smoky like scotch, perhaps from the char of the barrel?), final impressions as finish fades extremely dry. No real esters or funk to speak of, probably column-distilled?

A few minutes later:

Vanilla becomes apparent in the nose (15 years in a barrel, go figure), papaya taste comes sooner, less astringent, less alcohol burn, finish still bone-dry. A second sip reveals figs and passion fruit, with yet more papaya. On exhalation through the nose: leather, wood, different (but not as distinctive) fruit

As it's resting, definite umami notes are expressing themselves in the very long (minutes later) finish. Glutamic acid in aged spirits? Perhaps

Later still: No alcohol burn at all in the nose, molasses and sugar flavor notes start to be expressed (but not sweet at all)

With a drop or two of water: sugar notes come out a lot more on the tongue, almost like baked sugar, but once again, still not sweet.

After sitting covered for several minutes post-water: much heavier wood, notes of high quality very dark chocolate, with a bit of sweetness turning mildly bitter (as good dark chocolate does), slight resemblance to Bruichladdich's bittersweet characteristics, very whiskylike, in fact. Seaside single malt crossed with quality dark chocolate might not be a bad descriptor for this rum.

With the glass empty, it smells very distinctly of what in English is called Urfa pepper, a very dark, roasted and sundried chile pepper used in Turkish cuisine, but without the heat.

Overall thoughts: This is a weird rum, but not in the way that, say Smith & Cross is weird. It's very complex and sort of challenging to pick out the distinctive flavors - 15 years in oak also puts a heavy veneer over everything as well. I only poured myself 3/4 of an ounce, which maybe wasn't enough. To do this rum justice, at least an ounce is needed, as is at least half an hour for it to air out periodically. In fact, in the future, I'll let it sit for 10 minutes before even taking my first sip. 46% is sort of my ideal strength, and I don't consider it that strong, but at 46% this is a bit hot. Not sure if water or a really long time airing out is best to deal with that.
Post Reply