This 10 year old molasses-based pot still rum from Worthy Park keeps you guessing. Oak, banana, pineapple, brown sugar and allspice.

Coming from Velier’s Habitation line, the Forsyths WP 2005 is a molasses based pot still rum distilled in 2005, and aged for 10 years until it was bottled in 2015. If there’s any single indicator that Habitation Velier is product line ahead of of its time, I would argue that its the fact that this high quality, long aged WPL rum was released a year before the Worthy Park Single Estate 2006 bottling.

We measured a density of .910g/cc and a refractive index of 1.3609, indicating no additives (duh) and agreeing with the label’s proud “Sugar free” label.

On the nose there’s plenty of ripe and overripe banana and pineapple, which is followed up by an oak note that is subtle at first but crescendos into a really pleasant and well integrated main player, rounding out with some sawdust and vanilla. There’s some darker dried fruit on the palate, and while the banana and pineapple both stick around the pineapple is a bit stronger. Some brown sugar and allspice notes join the chat. The finish is long, strong and satisfying, indexing mostly on leather and a sampling of baking spice—then there’s a distinct reemergence of vanilla on the tail end.

In our blind taste test we thought it was a great neat sipper (8.5/10) and incredible mixed in one of the classier daiquiris of my life (9/10). A relevant point of comparison is Worthy Park Single Estate 2006 which is, frankly, in most ways really similar to the HV WP 2005. They’re both delicious and excellent specimens of a Worthy Park profile, but if anything I’d say the 2005 Habitation Velier is a bit more dynamic: there are a few more unexpected turns on the palate and finish, and really leaves you wanting to go back for another sip to dig in deeper.

The superficial: As a rum nerd I have a massive soft spot for the Habitation Velier bottle designs. It’s hard to know what this bottle is more proud of: its stylized illustration of the Forsyths Still, or it’s litany of interesting details about the rum’s pedigree. I can’t quite decide either, but I know that as a whole package it works for me. The wide design of the bottle is not only a nice distinctive flourish, but also makes it easier to store several in a row. The wooden cap and synthetic cork stopper are modest by limited-release standards, but feel nice and get the job done.