Domaine de Courcelles Rhum Vieux – L‘Ultime Millésime du Domaine (EMB 2021)) 1972

Domaine de Courcelles is a long-closed Guadeloupe distillery, and this single cask is drawn from its 1972 vintage, the last millesime of the estate, distilled from fresh-pressed sugar-cane juice. At forty-nine years it is among the oldest agricole rums one can find, and as a closed-distillery bottling it is primarily a collector's piece.

Matured in ex-bourbon oak and bottled unsweetened at a gentle 42%, the long maturation has softened it into something linear and rounded rather than heavy. The nose is bright with tropical fruit, pineapple and citrus, the palate continues with tropical and passion fruit alongside brown sugar, and the finish stays light and fruity with vanilla and barrel notes. Half a century of tropical and continental rest has left a delicate, fruit-led agricole, one to approach as a piece of history as much as a dram.