Worthy Park 2007 Habitation Velier

Reading from the back of the label, this was the third distillation from Worthy Park distillery since it re-opened after working nearly uninterrupted since 1670 (the rum for this bottle was distilled in 2007 and bottled 10 years later). Habitation Velier is known to work with distilleries to bottle special pot still rums under their label at cask strength (often leaving the barrels at the distillery to age before bottling). I have not had a ton of these, but they tend to have a pretty loyal following. The Last Ward 2009 was the last one that I had, and it was very good. The nose for this one is very fruity, with some sweetness and lemon peel coming through. Ideally, I would let this sit for a good 15 to 20 minutes before taking your first sip. On the palate the strength is apparent immediately (for some it may be best to add a little bit of water to dial down the ABV), but after getting accustomed to it, you will get cinnamon and ginger. The fruity notes from the nose also appear, but I can't pinpoint which fruit exactly, maybe pineapple. It's a very rich experience and not at all sweet. The finish seems to go on forever and brings in some chocolate notes, with a nice burn. It's hard to decide if this is better than the Last Ward 2009, but it's at least it's equal. I expected that there would be some funkiness to this since it is from Worthy Park (even though the label does state WPL or Worthy Park Light for lower ester rum, I still anticipated some funk to the rum), but this dials that back nearly completely and is more in line with what I would expect from a well-aged Appleton rum. That is not a knock on this at all, just not what I expected and either way this is very good. At some point I will get around to reviewing the many Foursquare bottles that I have, but I would think this would still hold up quite well to those. I'm sure it's hard to find this bottle, but if you do, I strongly recommend buying it.