Bielle 2009

Bielle is a Marie-Galante distillery known for cane-variety experiments and high-proof blancs, and this 2009 expression is a four-year aged agricole made from fresh-pressed sugar-cane juice, carrying the Guadeloupe IGP. Four years is enough to colour and gently shape the spirit while keeping it young.

The profile is straightforward and oak-driven, with woody notes and vanilla on the nose, then wood and tobacco on the palate, and a tobacco-and-oak finish. It is a clean, simple aged agricole rather than a complex one, showing how a young Marie-Galante rum takes on early barrel character. Bottled at 42% and unsweetened, it is an unfussy, drier sipper, an honest look at Bielle at the lower end of its age range.