Caroni
That of Caroni rum is an incredible story, fruit of destiny and of an unstoppable and continuous research. It all happened one day in December 2004, when, on tour in the Caribbean with the photographer Fredi Marcarini, Luca Gargano landed on the island of Trinidad and went to visit the legendary Caroni distillery. Luca still doesn't know what he will find when he arrives. He certainly cannot imagine the big surprise that awaits him. The stock: hundreds of barrels of rum, the oldest of which date back to 1974. "The buildings are abandoned", says Luca in his book Nomad among the barrels,"it is like being inside a landscape at the The Day After. Approaching the entrance gate, I see a woman inside, in the distance, and I try to get her attention by calling her very loudly. The woman hears me, sees us, approaches. First of all I ask you to confirm if we are in the right place. And she confirms it: it's the Caroni distilleries. "What happens?" so I ask her. "What happens?!" she says to me. «Don't you know what happens?». The previous year, he explains, the government closed the Caroni Sugar Factory, the last one in business on the island, nationalized in the 1970s".
"Disheartened, I ask if by chance there are still a few barrels left to bottle. And it is then that the woman looks at me, gesticulates, and says: «What?!» And then: "Come with me!". We enter and follow her. We walk among rubble, wreckage, pieces of sheet metal, rubbish and knee-high grass. We arrive in front of a department store. The woman opens the doors. And I can't believe my eyes. Thousands of barrels are stacked up in the warehouse. Incredulous, at that point I ask her if it's just last year's production, that is, if the barrels are all from 2003. «What?», she repeats. « No-oh! It's 1983, 1984, 1985". I'm speechless. I find myself in front of a true Caribbean treasure. I immediately bought the older barrels, all those from the 1980s, especially 82, 83, the '85, for a total of about a hundred barrels. Most are heavy rums, distilled at a lower proof and rich in congeners; a few barrels of light, distilled with a more performing column at a higher proof and at less congeners; and some barrels in which the heavy and light blending had already been carried out, with the alcohol content g already reduced probably to be ready for bottling. Most have an alcohol content of around 70%, but they are extremely balanced. “It is by tasting them that I realize more and more that the barrel grade is the one that expresses the authentic harmony of rum. Reducing the degree to a rum is a bit like reducing the height of a person, without taking into account the proportions of the feet, hands, arms, which at that point would seem longer than they are". He therefore decides to bottle them year after year. He decides to lower the alcohol content of only part of the stock. He makes a 1983 bottling reducing it to 52 degrees, still high for the time, but then he also bottles barrel proof: "You can't put a tie on a dreadlock," he says. Thus, from 2006 to 2011 Velier buys a total of 1388 casks, which will be bottled per year of distillation, and will remain to age in the Caribbean. To understand why Caronimania was born later, which has exploded in recent years among rum lovers and collectors from all over the world, in addition obviously to the exceptional quality and history of rum, we must bear in mind four factors that have determined its value and l 'authenticity, the result of farsighted choices, and at that time outside the logic of the market. In the first place, this is the choice to bottle the rum without reduction of degree, in order to preserve all the organoleptic characteristics: then that of continuing the aging of the barrels in Trinidad - or in a Caribbean climate, where there is an angel share from 8 % to 11% – to preserve its authenticity. The other two factors that contributed to positioning Caroni as an avant-garde rum are linked to the launch and style given to its presentation, with the use of reportage photos by Fredi Marcarini on the label and the already tested Demerara bottle, this time in a dark version.
Sold out
