Ferroni Canaries – La Palma 2005

Maison Ferroni is a French independent bottler from Provence known for unsweetened cask-strength rums double-matured in ex-sweet-wine casks. This bottling ranges further afield to La Palma in the Canary Islands, a 2005 made from fresh-pressed sugarcane juice rather than molasses, the islands' own cane-juice tradition.

Seventeen years of ageing, with strong local fortified-wine cask influence layered over ex-bourbon, give a rich, dark profile: a nose of spice, cooked wine, raisin and fruit, a palate of dried fruit, plum and coconut, and a spicy, apple-and-dried-fruit finish with marked tannins. The impression is sweet and dessert-like, reminiscent of nut nougat and sweet wine, though it stays characterful rather than cloying and is bottled without added sugar. At 54.5% it is a singular, wine-soaked aged rum for slow neat drinking, an oddity in the best sense.