Caroni 25 Year Old 1997 (Master of Malt) (61%) 70cl Rum

An absolute belter of a rum, this ticks all the boxes for something supremely special. First up, it hails from the revered Trinidadian Caroni distillery, which devastatingly ceased operations back in 2002, so this rum is pretty rare. Secondly, it boasts a grand old age statement – distilled in 1997, it aged for a quarter of a century before bottling. During its maturation, the rum was transferred from its original refill barrel into an oloroso sherry octave to finish, and the majestic colour alone provides evidence of the impact this has had on the spirit (just wait 'til you try it though!). It's pretty uncommon to see such rare old rum treated to special cask finishes – so there's selling point number three. Point four: it's bottled at a big, bold cask strength of 61% ABV. Boom. So there you go, four reasons to be excited before you've even tasted it. A total of 112 bottles join our exclusive Master of Malt collection.

[WEIRD LABEL WARNING] - Not sure we can overstate how little of a problem this is, but you may notice some extremely minor 'ghosting' of colour around the text on this label. It's an artifact of the printing process, and in peacetime we'd probably have reprinted it, but, well, it's Christmas - and look at the colour of the liquid. We'd have felt bad waiting for the new year to re-release it. We're betting that you're probably okay with it. Fairly-warned be thee, says we.

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