Here we have another independent bottling by Kill Devil (Hunter Laing) of Jamaica Rum from the Long Pond Distillery.  Over the past year I have become more familiar with rums from the Long Pond distillery.

Rums such as Expressions by Old Man Rum Co. have an element of aged Pot Still rum from the Long Pond distillery and I also purchases a Duncan Taylor bottling from Long Pond shortly before Christmas 2016.  Which turned out to be one of the best rums I have ever tasted.

So I had been looking around to try a few more Long Pond rums.  The rums from Long Pond can be hard to obtain (a number of casks all seem to come from a batch distilled in 2000).  The distillery makes money selling bulk rum for blending.  Or made rum rather sadly it seems the distillery closed in 2012.  It’s sister distillery Clarenden is however still operational.  Currently there are only 5 operating distilleries on Jamaica.  For more background information I will point you in the direction of the excellent Cocktail Wonk .

I will instead concentrate on telling you more about this specific rum.  As mentioned already this Long Pond is bottled by Kill Devil so it comes in their distinctive 3/4 opaque bottles.  They use the same design for all their rums (differing colour scheme for the cask strength offerings – purple rather than gold).

The rum is bottled not at cask strength but at 46% ABV.  It retails at around the £60 mark.  It is a single cask which produced 292 bottles. Distilled in June 2000.  It is a 100% Pot Still rum.  Aged for 15 years and finally released in early 2017.

You might struggle to find a bottle.  I’m struggling to write my reviews quick enough unfortunately.  I don’t want to write about bottles that are no longer obtainable.  I need some kind of priority system in place.

Anyway enough of my “woes” (too much rum?) lets move on to the actual rum.

First thing up is the colour – I suspect the rum has been aged mostly in Europe as it is a very light coloured rum.  Straw like – you could (if you pour enough) mistake it for a glass of white wine.

On the nose you are immediately hit with familiar Jamaican Pot Still funk.  Black bananas, stewed fruits and a touch of pineapple.  What you also get is the familiar Long Pond aromas.  Pine cones, maybe a touch of toothpaste – something slightly menthol on the nose.  It’s very distinctive. There’s a little touch of young blended whisky there as well.

The rum is slightly lower in ABV than the Duncan Taylor (51.9% ABV) but I am not really noticing a great deal of difference between the two overall.  I’m not sure on the nose if I could blind pick one from the other.

When sipped I’m not getting the definition of the more menthol/herby notes that I got from the nose.  I’m getting a lot more of a savoury less sweet sip. Despite its colour it is actually quite woody.  I was expecting as much oak as I am getting.

On the finish there is a bit of the “fresher” notes but definitely not when sipping.  The finish as it stands is good – a nice length and it has more of the sweeter notes I so enjoyed with the Duncan Taylor bottling.

For me its just a shame that more the sweeter/clearer notes so well defined and prominent in the Duncan Taylor bottling have been lost on the sip.

Having said that it is not without its charms.  In many ways I’m quite happy not to be trying something exactly the same as the Duncan Taylor bottling.  The rum is still a very good example of a traditional Jamaican Pot Still rum.

The more savoury elements of the rum and the interaction with the oak give a still very complex and rewarding sip.  It’s certainly not a boring rum.  It wouldn’t be a rum you would pick up every day for a relaxing sip.  A rum to enjoy when you fancy giving your manliness (or womenliness) a run out.

This is still a very good example of Long Pond – which seem to becoming more and more difficult to obtain.  If you can find a bottle of this then its certainly worth £60 – as long as you know exactly what you are buying.  It’s not badly balanced overall, has a lot of flavour going on and a well defined and lengthy finish.

Sometimes maybe I set the bar too high.