As the 38th and 39th editions, respectively titled "Tasting Gang" and "Last Caroni", are released, I invite you to learn a little more about the future of Caroni by Velier. I had the honor and privilege of participating in the " Caroni Ceremony ". Organized in the Cognac region in April 2019, this day was dedicated to the selection of the last barrels of the distillery that disappeared 17 years ago.
Why this Caroni Ceremony?
Luca Gargano acquired a large part of the stock of aging rums in 2004. He let them mature in their natural environment, in the tropics. Part of this stock remained at Trinidad, and another was hosted in Guyana, at Demerara Distillers Ltd. While the vintages from the 80s and early 90s have long since been bottled and sold, there were still 140 barrels in total at the start of 2019, with vintages from 1994, 1996, 1998 and 2000.
THE tropical aging is intense. And while it ensures optimal aromatic concentration, it also requires an extremely large share of angels. It also causes strong interactions with the oak of the barrel which ends up marking the rum enormously. It is for these reasons that tropical aging of more than 20 years is very complicated. It was therefore decided to move all of these barrels to Europe. The aging was thus frozen by placing the rums in stainless steel vats or demijohns. It is the end of an era that will have shaken up the world of rum.
It was then necessary to sort through all these casks to distinguish those with an exceptional character. Luca Gargano called upon a group of tasters from the four corners of Europe. The exceptional rums will be bottled in single casks. Then, the other casks from the Trinidad stock will be assembled for the next editions of the "employees" series. The other casks from the Guyana stock make up the "Tasting Gang" and the "Last Caroni".
Tasting gangs' selections
The origin of the " Tasting Gangs " is worth a little explanation. Freshly arrived from a trip to the Caribbean, Luca Gargano was struck by a visit to the distillery River Antoine on Grenada Island. There are several gangs (teams) operating there. The "wood gang" takes care of the wood that feeds the boiler. The "mill gang" turns the water mill. The "boiling gang" evaporates the cane juice, etc. It is therefore as a nod to this craft that the tasting groups were named "tasting gangs".
For my part, I was part of the Tasting Gang 8 which first dissected 10 barrels from 1996 from the stock of Trinidad. Of these 10 barrels, we have distinguished 2 as potential single casks. These 2 barrels were then tasted by Tasting Gang 1, and one of them was validated. Conversely, we tasted 3 barrels of 2000 selected by tasting gang 1 and selected 1 of them as well.
The exercise shows once again that the different barrels of the same vintage can be very different. The 1996s all bore the famous Caroni mark, but some were very dry, others much rounder, some fruity, others pastry-like.
The second part of the tasting was devoted to the stock from Guyana. Always the same vintage (1996) for us, with blends of light and heavy rums (light or heavy in aromatic compounds). Other groups tasted heavy rums from 1996, as well as a series of casks from 1994. The 7 casks were very close this time, so we did not choose any cask in particular.
The latest Caronis
It is these rums (blends from the 1996 Guyana stock) that were assembled to create the “Tasting Gang” bottling presented at Whisky Live 2019.
The “Last Caroni” is a blend of barrels of heavy rums from 1996, from the same stock in Guyana.
You can find the tasting notes for these two rums here for the Tasting Gang and here for the Last Caroni.
Another big thank you to Luca Gargano and Thierry Benitah for the welcome during this beautiful day. And hello to all my colleagues of the tasting gangs! 😉
Nico
Good morning,
The “last” bottling having been released… so there are no more barrels from Caroni?
Hello Ced, “The Last” was the last of the regular series of blends, excluding Employees (a series that is also finished today). So there are still a few single casks (about fifteen) that will be released little by little. These single casks will be the real “last” 😉
Good morning,
A somewhat unusual question: is it possible to acquire an empty barrel from Caroni? For decorative purposes, collection, etc.
Has this been done before?
Thanking you.
Hello Arnaud, I know that some empty barrels have indeed been sold to bottlers, brewers, etc. I would advise you to contact the Velier company to see if they would be willing to give you one. See you soon!