Another side jaunt into the world of interesting rums! My last bottle, a fascinating and challenging bottle from Guyana, was a real stunner. So I took a chance on this seven year bottling from Worthy Park - made in a pot still, aged 7 years in a second fill barrel (I think the aging occurs in England).
This is nicknamed "Dunder Heid!" which refers to dunder, a remnant of rum distilling that is extremely funky and high in esters, and is left at the bottom of the boiler - much like sour mash, with bourbon. So this is going to be super super funky.
Here are the official notes:
Pow! Flambeed banana wrapped in fermented Elastoplast and left to fester in an old dunder pit. Funky lemons, natural tar, herbal mouthwash, seawater, petrol and a wee ocean of dirty martinis. With water we found preserved lemons in brine, frothing barnacles, wet kelp, rubber diving suits full of pickled herring and smashed up bags of pickled onion Monster Munch. The palate initially brimmed with creosote, kerosene, black pepper and fermented fish. Then peppered mackerel, bandages, gloopy medical embrocations, oyster sauce and anchovy paste. With reduction we got a more vivacious exotic fruit vibe with mango, charred pineapple and passion fruit sours. Goat cheese dunked in lemon juice and kippers bashed on sourdough.
Damn, that's quite a list of flavors. Gauze (elastoplast), citrus, tar, brine, gasoline (!), wow, what?! I'm super curious. Bottled at a wild 67% ABV - this is going to be like rocket fuel. Let's take off:
Nose: Holy hell, this is funky stuff. I get rotten bananas and gasoline, right off the top. Ethanol fumes and tar. Salted olives. Flambeed pineapples. Wet grass?? It's hard to identify some of these scents. Grassy vanilla, followed by medical paste?
With a bit of water, to tame the 67% ABV, a hint of lemon comes out. More salt, like brackish swamp water near the sea. Rubber tires. And underlying banana sweetness. Fascinating.
Mouthfeel: Thinnish.
Palate: Whoa, interesting. Wet plants, wet earth, gasoline, crushed anchovies, chili peppers, and cooked banana. A real smorgasbord. Wild stuff. Hardly recognizable as "rum" in the traditional Bacardi sense. This is just insane rocket fuel.
With water, I get intense metals (copper?), banana, kerosene, burning plastics, scorched mango, scorched pineapple. I'm not so sure about the goat cheese of the official notes, but there is a savory/salty note here. Really interesting.
Finish: Brief. Remnants of benzene/gasoline. Hot pepper. Old banana.
Verdict: Another crazy high-test rum from SMWS, damn. This is similar to the Smith and Cross (Hampden) rum I had last year. I like this! It's super drinkable thanks to the banana backbone here. It's sold out now at SMWS, but if you ever find a 7+ year Worthy Park, check it out - this is fascinating stuff. Unlike most rums, or any other spirits out there.
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