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.

A Caroni 15 Year Old distilled in 1999 and bottled by The Creative Whisky Company. The Creative Whisky Company was founded in 2005 by David and Dawn Stirk. David previously worked at Cadenhead and has written extensively about whisky in magazines, as well as in several books, including “The Distilleries of Campbeltown: The Rise and Fall of the Whisky Capital of the World” and “The Malt Whisky Guide”. The first bottlings were released in 2011 in the ranges: Exclusive Malts, Exclusive Grains, Exclusive Blends and Exclusive Rum. A limited edition of 150 bottles.