Renegade Pre-Cask Lake Antoine (Upper Lake South) 2021

Renegade is a young Grenada distillery built around single-farm, terroir-driven cane juice rums, and this Pre-Cask blanc captures one such plot, Upper Lake South at Lake Antoine, distilled in 2021. It is made from fresh-pressed sugar cane juice rather than molasses, agricole-style from outside the French AOC, unaged and bottled at 50%.

Unusually for cane juice, this is a pot still spirit, which helps explain its weight and ester-driven funk. The nose is fresh, intense and minty, the palate oily, salty and full of green-olive brine, and the finish runs floral, grassy and mineral. It is a polarising rum, earthy and saline in a way that splits opinion, with the kind of pronounced terroir that intrigues drinkers who already enjoy funky whites or high-ester Jamaican style. A natural next step for the adventurous, distinct from any Martinique blanc.