Mount Gay Select 7 Year Old Exclusive to The Whisky Exchange

Tasting notes from Billy Abbott, The Whisky Exchange

• Nose

  Intense brown sugar, sultana fruitiness and flaky pastry – a Portuguese custard tart filled with raisin jam. Roasted banana notes follow, liberally dusted with cinnamon and nutmeg, with a hints of tarry black liquorice hiding underneath. Then more fruit rolls in: candied peel and stewed apples with lots of sugar and spice.

• Palate

  Creamy bananas to start – both rich and ripe and dunked in a banana cream pie – with lashings of nutmeg and hot cinnamon. As the heat subsides, the brown-sugar-encrusted pastry from the nose appears, along with sweet banoffee and a touch of balancing barrel-char bitterness. Hints of Juicy Fruit chewing gum sit at the back along with dark liquorice pastilles and rich caramel.

• Finish

  Sugar and spice, with a touch of musky green leaves and lingering banana – lightly tannic and not quite ripe.

• Comment

  It's Mount Gay dialled up to 11. Rich, thick, spicy and sweet, with layers of complexity and nuance – a proper sipping rum.