Worthy Park Single Estate Reserve – Velier 70th Anniversary Edition

This review is kind of an extension to my overview of all three of the Worthy Park Signature Range which you can read all about here. I had no idea that this Worthy Park release was even a thing. One day whilst browsing the pages of an Italian spirits site, this release jumped out towards me. A 57% abv version of the quite fabulous 45% Worthy Park Single Estate Reserve. After a little chat with Zan, it was added to my basket and duly purchased. Eventually (following a little incident with 24 bottles of Ginger Beer), it arrived.

Worthy Park Single Estate Reserve – Velier 70th Anniversary Edition – 57% abv – Pure Single Rum

As with the 45% release, this Rum is tropically aged for between 6 to 10 years. It is made up of 100% WPL Marque (60-119 gr/laa). As with the 45% release, this has caramel colour but has not been chill-filtered. Let’s get to it then.

Tasting Notes

Nose: Beautifully oily. A huge nose. A fair bite and sting of alcohol given its abv. A little air and time allows the goodness to push through. Intense Worthy Park banana. Thick, gloopy molasses….think dipping a spoon into a tin of treacle. Shortcrust pastry mincemeat tarts with a spoonful of stewed apples laced with cinnamon. Black tea and buttered spice bun. Vanilla and a solid undercurrent of oak. Salty olives and preserved lemons. Acetone but not a dominant note. A little kola nut on the back-end. 5 or 6 drops of water opens up a basket of fresh tropical fruit and a gentle creamy custard tart. It also evokes the molasses aroma from a hot distillery tour.

Mouth: Big. Fat. Oily. Very hot initially. It takes over your mouth entirely. You’re powerless to resist. A strong spike of black pepper initially gives way to a drying, moisture sapping oak that grabs your tongue and won’t let go. Salty brine and preserved lemons. Citrus oil drips over the edges of your tongue. The mid-palate is where this rum shines. Flambé banana. A freshly open pack of dried tropical fruit. The bitterness of molasses and soft liquorice. It’s a chewy rum full of chocolate coated banana chips and toffee-like dates. Buttery slices of malt loaf….the kind that sticks to your teeth. Rum and Raisin fudge stuffed into a banana and warmed on the bbq. Added water (bringing it down to about 52-53%) affords you the ability to enjoy a less heated sip that brings the addition of date and walnut cake, lighter molasses and banana pancakes.

I had a slight issue with the finish on the 45%….enough to mark it with the same 4.5 stars as the Marsala Cask Finish as I thought that the Oloroso finish trumped them both. No such issues here. It’s everything that I needed from the 45% and so much more. Very long, warming and peppery. Dry oak, a little cigar leaf. A full spoonful of molasses, liquorice root, walnut and the merest hint of fudge. It just goes on and on. A really beautiful finish for a really beautiful rum.

5 / 5

Worthy Park are pretty much nailing it release after release. It’s all there in this bottle. Including heaps of the trademark Worthy Park banana…..to quote a man far more eloquent than me…..“nobody does banana better than WP which of course is a very good thing because who the fu*k does not love banana”

It’s an exciting (and expensive) time to be embedded in the rum universe.

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