The Darien Misadventure
Recalling Scotland’s ill-fated Darien Scheme, this release captures the ambition and loss of that grand colonial dream. A blend of 12-year-old Panamanian and 20-year-old Trinidadian rums, re-aged in Spanish oloroso and Pedro Ximénez casks for rich sweetness and depth.
Bottled at cask strength without chill-filtration or colouring. Presented in a beautifully crafted gift box.
Nose: Complex dried fruit, brown sugar, with rich raisin overtones and hints of nutmeg and spice.
Palate: Vanilla fudge with more dried fruit and oily unctuousness, complex enough to drink straight, light enough for an old fashioned.
Imagine the grandly named New Caledonia, as a colony of the Kingdom of Scotland established in 1698 in present day Panama, monopolising the land route connecting the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans, a fanciful precursor to the Panama Canal which was built 215 years later.
This is the story of the Darien Scheme, a 14-month flight of Scottish grand imagination which landed on Gulf of Darien on the 2nd of November 1698 and was backed by 20% of the total wealth of Scotland to establish a Scottish Crown Colony which would change the country’s destiny and enable it to avoid the potential Grand Union with England. Notwithstanding that the land was theoretically part of The Kingdom of the New Granada, a Spanish colonial territory or that five ships and 1200 settlers could establish and manage this impressive venture, the settlers confidently reported back home that after six months all was going well and that Fort St. Andrews and New Edinburgh had been founded!
As with many grand ideas, the Scottish plans went awry and the whole scheme was abandoned in February 1700, contributing in part to the 1707 Acts of Union. With most of Scotland’s merchants and nobles almost bankrupted by the fiasco they petitioned the English Government to assume the national debt and stabilise their currency. When finally agreed, the Scottish shilling was given the fixed value of one English penny and the later ‘equivalent’ helped found the Royal Bank of Scotland… but that’s another story!
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