Bristol Classic Rum have certainly increased their portfolio over the past few years.  This rum represents an aged expression from the rejuventated Worthy Park Estate.

I was fortunate enough recently to make contact with John Barrett who runs Bristol Classic Rum.  So I have a little more information on this rum than what is noted on the bottle.

For anyone unfamiliar with Bristol Classic Rum they are an English Independent Bottler based just outside of Bristol.  They offer a very distinctive and ever so slightly home made feel to the presentation of their rums.  They represent single cask offerings, often as little as one single cask yielding just a few hundred bottles.  They do not bottle at Cask Strength (they typically bottle at between 40-46% ABV) and this is reflected in their pricing.  They rarely hit the heights of Velier, Samaroli and Silver Seal for example.

A 70cl bottle of this rum will set you back around £45 – for that you get the traditional Bristol bottle and canister in a very nice royal blue color scheme.  43% ABV

This 8 year old Jamaican rum from the Worthy Park Estate has been tropically aged on Jamaica for 7 years.  At which point John bought the casks and had them shipped over for another years ageing in the UK, prior to bottling in 2013.  The rum currently represents some of the oldest available Worthy Park rum as the Estate’s distillery only became functional again in the mid 00’s.  It is worth noting that rather than reviving the old distillery, which stopped producing rum back in the 1960’s it is a new state of the art distillery.

Worthy Park use an 18,000 litre custom Copper Pot Still made for them by Forsyth’s in Rothes, Scotland.  It can produce 4000 litres of rum per day.  This is one of very few automated pot stills in the world and the entire distilling process is controlled and monitored by a touch screen.

I’m a big fan of Worthy Park Gold (a rum aged for around 5 years) so I was very keen to try this 8 year old expression.

The nose on the rum is unsurprisingly very reminiscent of Rum-Bar Gold.  There is a very distinctive creamy/nuttiness that runs through the aged Worthy Park rums.  It sets them apart from the Hampden and Monymusk rums and places them more alongside the more refined Appleton Estate line of Jamaican rums.  Yet they still manage to retain their own very individual identity.

Nice notes of toffee, caramel and a nice creamy nuttiness all line up alongside a slight hint of ginger.  A strong noseful of sweet alcohol gives it all a nice rummy kick.

Sipped the rum is slightly more vegetal than the Rum Bar Gold and has a slight edge to it.  You definitely get more spicy oak and despite the extra ageing it seems to burn just a little bit more.  This may be a result if this is a single cask rather than a blend of rums.

The sip is quite sweet – nice toffee and sugar notes initially fading out to a nice rounded and long lasting finish.  Worthy Park rums are very distinctive and this rum also has a nice hit of spicy almost szchezuan style heat – its like spicy Thai food especially on the finish.

I’ve noticed that a couple of the rums which have been bottled by Bristol have a slight licorice note to them – this also has this feature.  I guess this may be something to do with the years ageing in the UK.  It could of course just be a coincidence.

It’s very good – slightly different to the Rum Bar Gold.  Not a huge step up but certainly a very interesting rum to try.

Thoroughly looking forward to more aged product from Worthy Park in the future.