This 12 year molasses-based pot still rum from Worthy Park is classically handsome. Rich oak, overripe bananas, dried cherries, and a bit of leather.

Worthy Park’s Single Estate 2006 is a molasses based, pot still rum with equal parts character an dignity. Tropically aged for 12 years in ex-bourbon casks an bottled at a generous 56% ABV, on paper this rum looks great; historically Worthy Park has had a lot of fans that felt underserved by the ubiquitous, pedestrian Rum-Bar line, and this vintage expression bottled in 2018 seemed to be a sort of public statement that Worthy Park was interested in doing some fan-service.

We measured a density of 0.916g/cc and a refractive index of 1.360 indicating no added sugar, agreeing with the back of the bottle’s claim that bottling this rum “without any additives gives you an authentic representation of Jamaican Rum from the Worthy Park Estate”.

On the nose it’s striking how strong it smells without having any overly abrasive or harsh notes; the first note is a deep rich oak that tends almost towards a mahogany, but then overripe bananas and dried cherries join in to dominate. Then there’s some strong berries (mostly blue), sawdust, dried apples, and a bit of almost-toasted brown sugar. On the palate the banana carries through but gives way to deeper leather, oak, and spice notes; our spice profile has the usual suspects: cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, but also a distinct spot of anise. The back end shows off a compelling menagerie of pineapple, a sort of medicinal note, and some apple. The finish is no joke: a serious hit of sawdusty oak, ginger, and some of that dried cherry kicked us off; strong and satisfying.

In our blind taste test we though it was great sipped neat (8.4/10) and great mixed (8.7/10); that being said, just because (like most things) it tasted great with fresh lime juice and simple syrup, I certainly wouldn’t slot this as a “mixing rum”. An interesting point of comparison for this expression is the Habitation Velier Forsyths WP 2005, which also contains the WPL mark, but was distilled a year earlier and aged for two years less. They’re both incredible pours, and along most axes quite similar, but the 2005 seems to be a little livelier and balances the well integrated oak with the fresh fruit that made me fall in love with Worthy Park in the first place a bit better. The 2006 hews a little more “classically handsome”, leaning more into the cask and striving for a more clear cut definition of excellent—which it meets with flying colors.

 

The superficial: The bottle is nice and sturdy, with a large wooden cap and natural cork stopper. There’s something about the texture of the label that feels a bit thin and cheap, and personally the label design somehow feels both busy and uninteresting. I wish the bottle did a better job of signaling how special the distilate inside is.