Chamarel Sauternes Cask Finish 2023

Chamarel is a respected Mauritian distillery making rum from fresh sugar cane juice in the agricole manner, though the protected word belongs to the French islands. This expression spent eight years maturing before a finish in Sauternes casks, the famous sweet Bordeaux wine, and is bottled at 45%.

The Sauternes influence pushes the rum toward a richer, dried-fruit register over its cane-juice core, the nose woody and lightly funky with dried fruit and an agricole lift, the palate carrying dried apricot, raisin, roasted nuts and wood, the finish woody and drifting sweet. The sweet-wine cask leaves a perceptible sweetness, so this sits on the rounder, dessert-leaning side rather than reading as a dry blanc. A characterful, fruit-forward sipping rum for those who enjoy wine-cask depth, best savoured slowly after a meal.