Jamaican Rum, 'Long Pond 18 Year'

• Single cask Jamaican rum selected and bottled by The ImpEx Collection
• Cask #20 VRW
• Distilled at Long Pond Distillery in Clark’s Town, Jamaica
• VRW (Vale Royal Wedderburn) marque with ester count of 150–250 grams per hectoliter of absolute alcohol (g/hL AA)
• Produced from a blend of molasses, cane vinegar, dunder, and muck
• Distilled on double-retort pot stills
• Aged a minimum of 18 years; tropically aged in an oak cask in Jamaica before being further matured for 4 years in San Jose, California
• Distilled in 2005 and bottled in 2024
• 249 bottles produced
• The nose offers Red Delicious apple and white raisins, plus a significant note of oak accented with red licorice, followed on the palate by notes of cedar and fennel and earth plus hints of orange peel. Subtle tobacco and pine with hints of smoke highlight a finish that is long and complex.
• No sugar, coloring, or other additives
• Non-chill filtered; 58.6% ABV

Legendary even by local standards, Long Pond Distillery (which, like Hampden Estate, has roots in Trelawney Parish dating to 1753) sports a reputation that balances its role as a workhorse producer (the distillery once contributed to Seagram’s Captain Morgan) with the serious rum-afficionado cred cultivated by independent bottlings. In 2021, National Rums of Jamaica created the Long Pond brand and released its first expression, but of course the prized possessions are the funkier, high-ester marques—like VRW, here given an extra eighteen years of oomph in two hot climates.