Clément Canne Bleue 2024

Clement is a three-hundred-year Martinique estate, now part of the GBH group, and Canne Bleue is its annual single-cane-variety blanc made from a specific blue cane harvested fresh and pressed for juice. As an unaged AOC Martinique white from fresh-pressed sugar-cane juice, it is agricole in its purest form, capturing one cane variety at one moment in the season.

Distilled low on a creole column to hold the vegetal congeners and bottled at 50% with no added sugar, it leads grassy, fresh and intense on the nose with clear sugar cane. The palate stays warm and mineral with that distinct agricole snap, and the finish turns citrusy and peppery with a thread of licorice. Bright and dry rather than sweet, this is a textbook Ti' Punch blanc, the cane and lime made to meet, though it has the proof and freshness to be enjoyed neat by drinkers who like their whites lively.