Velier Long Pond Cambridge STC❤️E 2005

Wow this is just really good Jamaica! So complex and flavoursome, yet more rounded and mature compared to the little brother 2010 released earlier. Esters and funk, lots of Glue and solvents, then a mouthful of tropical & dried fruits. Perfectly aged with a touch of well balanced wood influence. A wonderfully long finish. A must try for jamaica fans!

What a board.... Overripe fermented mango, salty lime, subtle marzipan and slightly meaty notes meet esters, varnish and glue. Incredibly dense and thick viscosity, salty, bitter fruity and heavy. I love this juicy lime aroma paired with umami bbq notes and overripe baked banana, as well as cinnamon and mint and mango lassi! Extremely long finish, incredibly delicious and complex! So delicious. Probably one of the best Jamaica rums of this year! Only the 2005 TECA is as great... For me probably one of the best and at the same time most extreme Long Ponds ever!

Lots of marzipan and varnish on the nose. Incredibly intense and complex on the palate. Slightly acidic, spicy and fruity. The 18 years of tropical maturation produce an absolute top release. One of my highlights at Whisky Live Paris 2023.

Nose is an explosion of flavors. Funky with esters, fruits and ample notes of solvents and marzipan. Also quite some wood once you are past the chemical notes. Compared to the 2010 release, this is much more mature, dark and closed up at the beginning. While you get full ester goodness, this is more balanced compared to the 2010 and less agreesiv (comparatively that is, of course!) Very nice on the palate as well. This is - in the most possible way - soft, balanced and elegant. Yet don’t take this wrong. There is still plenty of funk. Complex fruits (tropical as well as dried - I get some cherry here) mingling with wood and esters. This is very rich and the long tropical aging delivers brilliantly, presenting a dark and heavy rum without being overly wood forward or bitter in the slightest. Excellent! On the palate the 2010 is more playful and the ester notes are much more punchy. Much more adstringent and „in your face“. Both brilliant but rather different sipping experiences old and dark versus funk forwards. Both great. Compared to the younger 2005 NRJ bottling, both clearly share the same DNA. The additional years of tropical aging clearly transformed the profile towards darker and woody notes. Esters are much more tamed with dried fruits being more present in the mix.

Edit: tried it again today in MaiTai with the TWJ LP STC♡E. The mega hit Wow, what a great rum. Very tasty. I only tasted it briefly between sampling. Tasted it once shortly after pouring and then forgot to finish it. After more than an hour in the glass, I think it has improved a lot. But a comparison with the other Cambridge is still pending.

A rum tasted at the WLP. A nose of marzipan and glue with dried fruit. On the palate, there's glue, vegetal and quite a lot of bitterness and tropical fruit. The finish is long on wood and dried fruit. A fine rum, but a little disappointing in direct comparison with WLP's HLCF, which I personally liked a lot.

Today a cross-comparison with the new 18-year-old STC❤️E and the 13-year-old. At first I was surprised that the 18-year-old was a little lighter in the glass. I had expected the opposite after longer storage. The new one is clearly more present on the nose (but this may also be due to the fact that the 13-year-old has been open longer). The glue note and the ester are more clearly perceptible...otherwise the two are very similar. On the palate, the longer ageing is reflected in the stronger wood note, which is still very well balanced. In terms of appearance, I find the 18 a little softer and rounder than the 13. But these are only nuances. Ultimately, the differences are much smaller than expected. The finish is not quite as long. That's where the 13 scores. To sum up: both are excellent bottlings. Personally, I would prefer the 13

A direct comparison with the other two Camdridges (what's the correct plural here 😂) is still pending, but impatience has won out and I'm tasting this one on its own for now. As you'd expect, there's more wood over the fermented STCE fruit potpourri. The vanilla in solvents is also there, as well as the great umami note with curry leaf and bacon. It definitely needs a little longer in the glass and unfolds really nicely. You are rewarded with a very rich and opulent rum with a great balance of intense tropical maturity, umami and decadent fruit notes.

Glue, varnish, esters, solvents and some alcohol are very present at first. With more time in the glass, sweet, fruity notes and spices increasingly dominate. On the palate, esters, glue, tropical fruits. Fruits, but also wood, spices and bitter notes. A direct comparison with the younger brother (RX416) is still pending. Edit: In a direct comparison with the Cambridge 2005 13y (RX416), the two bottlings hardly differ from each other. The latter is perhaps a little more tamed overall and - surprise surprise - has a little more aroma from the cask. Both are excellent bottlings, but the younger brother is much more attractive in terms of price.

12.05.2024 Retasting at home with more tranquility than at the Whisky Lige 2023 😊 Nose Light wood, round, balanced, complex, fruity, light mineral, faint mint, light coffee, faint chocolate. Palate Oily, balanced, elegant, light orange, faint mineral, faint mint, naturally sweet, light wood, spice. Finish Medium to long, naturally sweet, balanced, light chocolate, oily, light honey, faint caramel. Extra note. What a balance in all the elements this rum has, a pice de resistance in my mind. The empty glass has caramel, light chocolate, light floral and chocolate. -------------------- #4354 22.10.2023 Whisky Live 2023

A sign of quality here: a fruit fly sneaks up immediately after pouring 😉 Initially sticky on the nose, but this quickly gives way to fermented tropical fruit. Strong, fruity and a little nutmeg on the palate, the alcohol spreads warm and clearly peppery throughout the mouth. Blindly, I would have thought it was a completely tropical NY, but I have tasted relatively few rums from LP. Not my preferred profile, but I'm not judging my taste here, I'm judging the quality of a rum based on my taste experience. And in my humble opinion, this rum is of high quality. The tropical sun shines out of its ass! 😊

A blind sample, received from Olivia as a Secret Santa and already tasted on 21.12. Let me say right away: I would never have thought of LP. Really great nose, very balanced, powerful and the dried fruit is almost reminiscent of Appleton.😀 Plenty strong and funky in the mouth. Blue cheese.😅 Spicy finish with bacon. Super! A great rum! 😀😀😀😀Thanks to Bavaria for this great sample!

A great rum, but for me the first Cambridge is rounder and fruitier. The bitterness and wood are a little more predominant here. Still top shelf

A direct comparison with the 12- and 13-year-old is still pending, but it is clear that the 18-year-old Cambridge also hits the mark again. It is heavy and complex, but by no means too woody. Velvety soft on the palate, with the typical gravy. Tannins/barrel on the finish.

A particularly old Long Pond Cambridge (18 years) that naturally raises expectations. The nose is dense, torn between phenolic and medicinal notes, tangy, exotic fruit (pineapple, banana, mango, lime), spicy oak (even umami) and floral notes. A well-balanced profile on the nose in any case. The attack on the palate offers a fine balance between astringency and sweetness, with plenty of exotic fruit (pineapple, banana, citrus) and spice to counterbalance the medicinal and floral notes. This is an elegant, structured rum, with well-integrated alcohol. The finish is long and highly aromatic. Fruit arrives like a tidal wave, with papaya, mango and lime, while tannins chisel the palate. Once again, we have a good mastery of the different aromas. If the rum's intrinsic quality is undeniable, is it worth the price hike? It's hard to justify this rum's superiority to the Cambridge 2010 released the year before, at almost half the price. The quality/price ratio is not worth the candle here.