Caroni 1998 Employees Edition – Kevon “Slippery” Moreno

Founded in 1918 near Port of Spain, Trinidad, Caroni became synonymous with an unmistakable style of “heavy” rum—oily, tarry and deeply complex—shaped by locally grown sugarcane and the water of the Caroni River. The downturn of Trinidad’s sugar industry in the 1980s and 1990s ultimately led to the distillery’s closure in 2002, a watershed moment that instantly transformed remaining stocks into finite, historically fixed assets. When Luca Gargano (Velier) secured surviving casks in 2004 and released tightly controlled limited editions, Caroni’s cult status moved decisively into the realm of serious collecting, with bottles now commanding strong attention across international auctions as benchmarks of a lost production tradition.

The Caroni Employees Edition dedicated to Kevon “Slippery” Moreno distills that legacy into a scarce, high-proof release: distilled in 1998, aged 21 years, and bottled at an imposing 69.5% ABV. Limited to just 1,384 bottles, it sits among the most sought-after modern Caroni issues—valued not only for rarity and provenance within the Employees series, but for the uncompromising profile collectors expect: tropical fruit layered with smoke and tar, evolving into leather, wood and raisin, and finishing long with smoky, spicy intensity. For buyers building a museum-grade rum library or diversifying a blue-chip spirits portfolio, this is the kind of post-closure Caroni that combines documented scarcity with enduring cultural relevance.