Saint Aubin XO

Saint Aubin is a Mauritian estate working from fresh-pressed sugar cane juice, agricole in spirit though outside the French AOC, so it is best read as agricole-style rather than AOC agricole. This XO carries six years of age and an unusual pot still distillation for a cane juice rum, which helps explain its fuller, rounder shape.

Matured in ex-bourbon oak, it leans honeyed and gentle, with ripe tropical fruit, vanilla, caramel and a nutty, woody sweetness rather than the dry grassy snap of a Martinique blanc. At 44% it is warm and full bodied without much fire, a comfortable sipper that trades intensity for ease. Drinkers wanting a high-proof power bomb should look elsewhere, but for a soft, fruit-led take on cane juice rum with real wood behind it, this sits in an agreeable middle ground.