What is it? Jamaican Pure Single Rum, so molasses based, distilled at the Worthy Park distillery, in Jamaica, on a pot still in 2005 and bottled by Independent bottler Mezan in around 2015/2016, making this approx 10 years old. You may see another of these 2005 Jamaica’s around at the moment, that is a more recent bottling (2017) and bottled at a higher abv of 46% abv. From what I understand this rum was entirely matured in Europe. There are no details on the bottle outrun or the marque that has gone into this bottling, and I’ve not been able to find that information out anywhere either.

Not coloured or chill filtered and bottled at 40% abv. It’s ok, Mezan have done away with this low abv now on their more recent bottlings, worry not!

Sugar? No.

Nose: Hmmm, quite a light Worth Park here. Certainly bananas, lemon and lime (Sprite or 7up), very light golden syrup, more so than honey. Some cake’y, bread’y notes, so maybe indeed banana bread or banana pie. A little vanilla maybe, a tiny prickle of oak (I mean tiny) and a little bit of salty brine. Some really lovely generic floral notes are here too but I can’t pick out anything specific.

Palate: Medium mouth. Soft entry, quite acidic at first with green apples, gooseberries, sharp cider, grass and under ripe nectarine. There is a nice, creamier buttery/custard side that appears mid-palate with a touch of honey and chamomile tea, but doesn’t last long and goes salty, tarry and sour again to the finish.

Finish: Medium in length. Sweeter white wine (like a sweet Riesling), some green olives, a little tar, orange blossom honey and even a little milk chocolate pops up! Very little heat, spice or oak at all from the cask.

Thoughts? Quite different to Worthy Parks I’ve had before, I can see the similarities – a good whack of banana in there for sure – but it’s very soft, light and raw. A nice bottle to see how different styles from a distillery present themselves, but for me it was just lacking any real wow or oomph. I can’t even say it was the abv this time, I just think that it was too spirit driven (which is fine normally) but in this case the wrong marque of rum. Maybe this would have normally been blend filler?

Clearly very well made rum and at £33 (at the time of purchase in 2016) was a no brainer, but it’s not a rum I’d go back to. Just not enough on offer for me.