Holmes Cay Jamaica Wedderburn 2011 Cask Strength Single Cask Rum

Holmes Cay Jamaica Wedderburn 2011 Cask Strength Single Cask Rum

Clarendon distillery is one of the Caribbean’s newer rum factories, built back in 1949. Back then, it was a small operation, running a single pot still produced by legendary Louisville, Kentucky coppersmiths, Vendome. Today it is joined by a second, larger pot still of Indian manufacture, a modern five-column still, both installed in 2009. Operating between January and October each year, the distillery produces around 12 million litres of alcohol each year. Clarendon is technically two distilling operations in one. National Rums of Jamaica has a 73% share, with the remaining 23% owned by their biggest customer, Diageo, who end up taking 90% of Clarendon’s total output for their Captain Morgan and Myers’s brands.

The terms Wedderburn and Vale Royal are both fairly obscure, though both are used to refer to specific, high ester rums particular to Jamaica. Wedderburn rum was a classification of heavy rum that would usually be used to give weight and flavour to blended rums - much like malt or peated whisky in blends - and is rarely seen unblended. Wedderburn rums are identified by an ester count of 200/300 gr/hlpa. The popular Jamaica rum Smith and Cross, for example, is a blend of Wedderburn, mellowed out with milder Plummer style rum. 

This was distilled in 2011 and aged for 10 years in ex-Bourbon casks before being bottled by US based independent bottler Holmes Cay.