Bielle Rumclub Private Selection Ed. 56 2019

This Bielle comes from Marie Galante, the small Guadeloupean island whose distilleries favour high proof agricole from fresh pressed sugar cane juice. Released as a Rumclub Private Selection by the German bottler Spirit of Rum, this 2019 single cask is bottled at a colossal 75.2%, near raw still strength, and matured in an Azores white wine barrel, an unusual cask that reshapes the rum entirely.

For all its power, the profile is surprisingly fruity and honeyed: apricot, peach and other yellow fruits, a thick wave of honey sweetness, and a grappa like wine character from the cask, with grassy, herbal agricole notes and a warm, peppery, intense finish. So dominant is the wine and honey that the usual cane juice grassiness can recede, making it almost unrecognisable as agricole blind. This is a single cask for experienced drinkers who relish extreme strength, best approached slowly and with plenty of water.