I was beginning to wonder about how an unaged Caroni Rum might taste like:
But first, this was maybe not the best place to discuss this, because the OP of this topic actually posed his question in a different direction, and also I believe this is might be part of a bigger question, and I wouldn’t want to hijack the thread any further.
(Also I tried finding old threads that touch on this topic, but unfortunately couldn’t find much.
I hope this is ok this way)
So maybe the better question is, does anybody know or is there any indication, where the classic Caroni Profile actually comes from (not geographically). Being mindful that it’s variation has a broad spectrum, but I am under the impression that the core qualities stay constant and recognizable IMHO.
If it is the fermentation, distillation process or the water used, then the raw unaged distillate must have some noticable and recognizable qualities as well already. Which led me to ask about any unaged Caronis out there.
If not, can something like the Caroni Profile really only come from the aging part i.e. Casks and external factors (air pressure, temperature, humiditiy…)?
The various dirty and non-dirty scents (congeners) are derived from the enzymes in the fermentation phase (and can be either specially cultivated or natural/wild).
I recommend reading RUM by Cyrille Mald, where he talks about this in more detail
Now Caroni White Magic comes to mind: “Caroni’s flagship white rum that included a small amount of seven year old heavy rum that was charcoal filtered to clarity.”
some say the rubber and tar profile comes from mistakes in the distillation process. Well, given the standards of distillation in poorer economies, the warm climate and potentially loser regulation it might be…
another thought, “they took water from the Caroni river…” and the fact that Trinidad has large natural pitch fields. Like peat fires and storage close to shoreline significantly defines a whisky flavor this might have happened to Caroni
That was a very nice and informative read, thank you!
But if this characteristic comes from the fermentation, or respectively “mistakes” in the distillation process, this would mean that all of these notes should be present in a “white Caroni” as well, no?
And to follow-up, is there such a thing as a white Caroni?
Or is it due to the fact that Luca discovered old Casks only, that this would be even rarer than Caroni usually already is?
To add some „tongue-on“ experience to the discussion as well: During the historical Caroni tasting session organized by Steffen Mayer in August 2021 for his book on Caroni we had the chance to taste some unaged Caronis from different vintages (there is a dedicated section on this event in Steffen‘s book). The most surprising part was we could not only taste the typical HTR notes, we even found the differences associated to the respective vintages (1996 was sweeter than 1998 that was more expressive on heavy, tangy notes). So the typical Caroni profile is definitely something that can be found in the unaged distillate.
