Santos Dumont XO Gewürztraminer

Santos Dumont XO Gewurztraminer is a Brazilian cachaca, which by law means it is distilled from fresh pressed sugar cane juice rather than molasses, a close cousin of rhum agricole made only in Brazil. This bottling is column distilled and then rested in Gewurztraminer wine casks, the aromatic white grape lending a perfumed, floral sweetness on top of the cane base.

The result sits firmly at the dessert end of the spectrum. Coconut, caramel, vanilla and ripe tropical fruit lead, the wine adding a candied, almost confectionery lift, with a sweet and honeyed finish and very little alcoholic bite at 40%. It drinks soft and rounded, more rum liqueur than the grassy, vegetal cachaca a caipirinha calls for, and that sweetness is the point rather than a flaw. Served chilled it makes an easygoing aperitif or a gentle after dinner sipper for anyone who enjoys candy sweet, coconut forward spirits.