Plantation Barbados 2007

This is a single-vintage Barbados rum, distilled in 2007 at the West Indies Rum Distillery in Bridgetown — the island's oldest working distillery, and a very different house to the one most people assume is behind a bottle like this. Column and pot spirit, Bajan in character: fruit-forward, clean, with an underlying nuttiness that WIRD does better than almost anyone.

What makes it worth the money is the ageing, which happens in two climates. The first couple of years are spent in ex-bourbon casks in Barbados, where tropical heat drives the spirit hard into the wood and takes a heavy angel's share for the privilege. Then the casks are shipped to Ferrand's cellars in Cognac, where the rum spends a further fourteen years in cognac casks in a cool, damp continental warehouse. Sixteen years in total, split between fast tropical ageing and slow European finishing.

You can taste the join. Ripe mango and banana on the nose come from the Barbados years; the dried apricot, fig and candied orange peel come from the cognac wood, along with vanilla and a light cocoa dust. The palate is rounded and full without being syrupy, with baking spice and a nutty, faintly grassy note that keeps it from turning into dessert. The finish is long, warm and gently oaked.

The brand is in the middle of becoming Planteray, so you will see both names on the shelf. The rum in the bottle is the same.

How to Serve

Neat, at room temperature, in a tulip or a copita. This is a sipping rum and cold flattens it. If you must have ice, one large cube and drink it before it melts.

Where to Drink It

Artesian at The Langham, where aged rum gets treated like aged spirit should be. Trailer Happiness in Notting Hill for the rum list. Dukes Bar in St James's for a quiet one after dinner.

Food Pairings

Aged Gouda, hard and crystalline, is the pairing that surprises people. Roast pork with crackling also works. Keep the chocolate for something younger and sweeter.