Neisson 2005

Neisson is the small family distillery in northern Martinique long loved by agricole devotees, working the AOC way from fresh pressed sugar cane juice with no added sugar and distilling on a creole column that keeps the grassy cane congeners in the spirit. This 2005 is a single cask aged seven years in ex bourbon oak, and tropical maturation means those seven years carry real weight.

The nose is fresh and round, full of peaches and yellow fruits, while the palate turns to apricot and more peach with a spicy lift, finishing on dried fruit, spice, a roasted note and wood. It drinks fruity and approachable, milky and easy in texture, with a youthful brightness that some find on the gentle side for a brut de fut. Bottled at 45.8% and unsweetened, it is a fruit forward, single cask agricole that shows how ex bourbon ageing rounds Neisson's fresh cane character, a charming and very drinkable Martinique vieux.