Rivière du Mât Âge 15 Ans

Riviere du Mat in Reunion ages this fifteen-year agricole from fresh-pressed sugar cane juice, distilled on a column and matured in ex-bourbon. Fifteen years is a long run for a cane-juice rum, and the wood has had time to work the spirit thoroughly into a soft, oak-led shape.

The nose is woody and warm with guava, caramel and cinnamon, the palate carries cinnamon spice over tropical pineapple and papaya, and the finish stays woody, fresh and light with a return of cinnamon. At a gentle 43 percent it is mellow and easy, the long ageing smoothing it into something rounded rather than powerful, though a higher proof might have given it more punch to match its years. A relaxed, tropical-fruited aged agricole for unhurried neat sipping, where the guava and caramel notes carry the wood.