1996 Caroni 23 Year Old 'Tasting Gang' Full Proof Blended Trinidad Rum (700ml)

Carribbean rum doesn't come much rarer or more collectable than Caroni. Various bottlers have secured casks over the years and the last remaining stocks are slowly being released. This edition was composed by a team of twenty three European Caroni enthusiasts who met in Cognac - hence the sub title: "Tasting Gang". After sampling 173 barrels, they settled on a blend of 22 casks. All the rums selected were distilled in 1996 and matured on Trinidad before being moved to Guyana where they remained in situ until 2019 losing 85% of the liquid to evaporation. This extraordinary collaborative effort was incrementally released by Luca Gargano of Velier. Based in Genoa, Gargano has a reputation for uncovering the world’s finest (and most obscure) rums. This represents the 38th and second last edition. 5083 bottles are on offer world wide. Australia has received a tiny allocation. Once these are gone, they're gone forever.

The Caroni Estate Distillery (est. 1918), closed in 2003 and is now sadly, demolished. It was built on the site of an old sugar factory and for a period supplied rums to the British Navy. At the time, there were some eight to ten other sugar factories operating, each producing different types (and qualities) of rums, bought up by merchants and sold to rum shops all over the island.

Caroni gradually increased the quality of its distilling process, moving on from its original cast iron still to a wooden coffey still, until 1945 when they acquired a copper still which was followed by a single column in 1957 and then a four column Gerb Herman still in 1980. Rums from the estate gained a reputation for being particularly flavoursome.