Caroni
The Caroni distillery was founded more than a hundred years ago as one of the many facilities processing the excellent molasses from sugar cane in Trinidad, the southernmost island of the Caribbean. In the last years of the last century, it held more than 90% of the sugar production of the entire State of Trinidad and Tobago, until, by government decision in 2003, it was suddenly closed. During a trip to the Caribbean in 2004, the Genoese importer Luca Gargano found the factory closed, reduced to industrial archaeology, but in the large warehouse, hundreds of barrels of rum were preserved: from the oldest dating back to 1974 to the youngest from 2000. Thus began the work of importing, bottling, and spreading that extremely important and precious heritage that risked being locked away forever in the large warehouses of the old distillery.
The Caroni bottles today represent the historical memory of a great state distillery and sugar factory, which became famous for its great rum only after its closure. From the high-quality molasses of the island of Trinidad (today no longer no longer sugar cane plantations on the island) an intense and enveloping distillate was produced, the last specimens of which are today an unmissable treasure for all rum lovers.
The last vintage of Rum Caroni (2000) has been bottled since 2012, from which the 12 and 15-year labels were born. The 17-year aging refers instead to the distillation of 1998, with bottling in 2015. These are the last Caroni bottles produced on the island of Trinidad; the image on the label reproduces that used by Caroni in the 1940s, as a tribute to the history of the distillery. Once the rum contained in the last barrels is finished, the Caroni brand will be preserved by importing molasses from abroad and aging the rum in England, trying to produce a distillate of the same quality as that historic Caroni. In the meantime, we enjoy the last bottles of the original.
The Caroni distillery was founded more than a hundred years ago as one of the many facilities processing the excellent molasses from sugar cane in Trinidad, the southernmost island of the Caribbean. In the last years of the last century, it held more than 90% of the sugar production of the entire State of Trinidad and Tobago, until, by government decision in 2003, it was suddenly closed. During a trip to the Caribbean in 2004, the Genoese importer Luca Gargano found the factory closed, reduced to industrial archaeology, but in the large warehouse, hundreds of barrels of rum were preserved: from the oldest dating back to 1974 to the youngest from 2000. Thus began the work of importing, bottling, and spreading that extremely important and precious heritage that risked being locked away forever in the large warehouses of the old distillery.
The Caroni bottles today represent the historical memory of a great state distillery and sugar factory, which became famous for its great rum only after its closure. From the high-quality molasses of the island of Trinidad (today no longer no longer sugar cane plantations on the island) an intense and enveloping distillate was produced, the last specimens of which are today an unmissable treasure for all rum lovers.
The last vintage of Rum Caroni (2000) has been bottled since 2012, from which the 12 and 15-year labels were born. The 17-year aging refers instead to the distillation of 1998, with bottling in 2015. These are the last Caroni bottles produced on the island of Trinidad; the image on the label reproduces that used by Caroni in the 1940s, as a tribute to the history of the distillery. Once the rum contained in the last barrels is finished, the Caroni brand will be preserved by importing molasses from abroad and aging the rum in England, trying to produce a distillate of the same quality as that historic Caroni. In the meantime, we enjoy the last bottles of the original.
