What is it? Single cask pot still rum from Jamaica, by ways of molasses, and distilled at the Long Pond distillery in 2000 in the Wedderburn style (high ester baby). There isn’t an age statement on this but from the bottling code on the neck of the bottle it looks like it was bottled in 2014, making it around 14 years old. From the colour of the rum (all natural by the way) it looks to be mainly European aged. As this rum is made in the Wedderburn style it’s produced using plenty of dunder and long formation times to give a very high ester rum.

Natural colour, not chill filtered and bottled at 40% abv (boo-hoo).

Sugar? Get out of town.

Nose: Oh….dear…..God. Stunning. Massive estery funk, and pretty much every tropical fruit you care to name; mushy and black bananas that have been sat in the sun, masses of fresh pineapple, fresh mangos, fresh papayas, fresh guavas. Some stuff from close to home too with green apple skin, conference pears and Seville oranges. There is some new leather creeping in, black pepper and a small handful of those lime Jelly Babies. Right at the back there is a little aniseed and the smell of new tyres. Bear with me here, it sounds strange to describe a texture you can smell, but there is an almost creamy, buttery feel to the nose…..if you smell it you’ll know what I mean.

Palate: Medium mouth feel, helped by the pot still and the lack of filtering rather than the abv, I must say (damn you Mezan!). Well, if the nose didn’t wake you up the palate will; it’s all about the rubber and aniseed at first, some smoky tobacco, new leather, black pepper again and a spiced toffee like note which is the only thing that gives you indication of cask. Sitting next to it the fruits play their hand but this time it’s really only the banana and pineapple that I notice – freshly cut and running with juices. That creaminess from the nose is there all the way through with a thick whipped cream/butter like feeling as it coats your mouth.

Finish: Medium. Salty, rubbery (bicycle inner tubes), spicy; a little cinnamon and ginger to play with the anise. A surprise showing of some sweetness when things calm down with runny honey and a little toffee sauce (only a little), and a sprinkle of brown sugar.

Thoughts? Thoughts indeed. Absolute cracker. Love it. If you like your high ester rums, or want to try some real hardcore Jamaicans and don’t want to break the bank, then get one of these, if you can still find it; I think it only cost be about £40!! The nose is to die for, the palate is outstanding but the finish does let it down a little, and I know it’s a lazy thing to say but abv would really help here. This is a massive rum at 40% but at 50% it’d be a monster and that extra abv would light the finish up.

………I always know I’m going to get a good rum experience when my wife walks into the room and the first thing out of her mouth is “It stinks in here, the whole downstairs stinks of whatever you’re drinking”. So judge it by that; “Mezan Jamaica 2000 – a nose that fills a house.”