Clément Cask Finish Collection (Saké) 2018

Clement runs a three-hundred-year estate at Le Francois, now under GBH, and this Cask Finish Collection bottling is one of its more experimental outings: a single cask given a sake finish. Drawn from the 2018 vintage and just under five years old, it lands unsweetened in spirit at a full 54.4%.

Distilled from fresh-pressed sugar cane juice on the estate's creole column, it spends its main maturation in ex-bourbon oak before the sake cask leaves its mark. The result noses on orchard fruit, nuts and that unmistakable sake character, with a palate of wood, roasted notes and fruit, closing on citrus, toasted oak and a clear agricole grassiness. The finish cask adds an exotic, slightly savoury twist rather than sweetness, so it stays dry and spice-forward. One for drinkers who enjoy seeing classic Martinique cane juice pushed somewhere unexpected.