The Caribbean, Trinidad. Distillery closed, site dismantled.

In 1975, under pressure from across the country, the government of Trinidad nationalized a number of companies, including Tate & Lyle, the English giant of sugar production and owner of Caroni Ltd since 1937. The very competitive economic context, however, led to the closure of the island's sugar refineries and the collapse of the molasses production required for the production of rum. In 2001, the government sold its shares in Rum Distillers Ltd (Caroni) to Angostura and closed the distillery in 2002. Caroni Ltd would be definitively liquidated on 31 July 2003. In October 2004, Luca Gargano, the CEO of the Italian spirit distributor Velier and a passionate rum enthusiast and photographer, visited Trinidad to carry out research for a future report. There he found the site abandoned and, within its cellars, a huge stock of barrels, some distilled in 1974. The story of Caroni began in 2005 and the distillery immediately became the subject of lore.

Distilled at the Caroni distillery, which as founded by the Trinidad and Tobago government in 1918 but closed in 2002 in response to the sugar industry crisis, this rum is now incredibly rare and highly sought-after by enthusiasts.
After the distillery closed, the huge stock of rum still busy ageing in cask was left on site and only rediscovered in 2004, completely by chance, by the independent bottler Velier, who found nectars that had been aged for more than 30 years. These expressions were bottled in limited editions that were a huge hit with enthusiasts but quickly ran out, earning them legendary status.
This rum was distilled in 1996 and bottled in 2013, spending 17 years in bourbon casks in a tropical environment that boosted the speed of maturation and evaporation. The angel’’s share was as high as 70% and only 3,910 bottles were filled.
The nose is dominated by banana, wood and a hint of varnish. On the palate, we find Caroni’’s typical characteristics manifested in notes of hydrocarbon, followed by coffee, ripe banana and oak, with a powerful body and well-tamed alcohol. The finish is long and full of flavour.