Dugas Fortin La Maison du Rhum #6 2015

This La Maison du Rhum release, number six in Dugas's terroir-led series, is a single cask from Fortin in Paraguay, distilled from sugar cane honey in 2015 and given an unusual Tequila cask maturation, bottled at 42%. The cane-honey base and agave cask together set it well apart from the mainstream molasses crowd.

The standout trait is smoke. The nose mixes caramel, barrel and wine with a pronounced smoky character, the palate turns to tobacco, wood and a mezcal-like edge, and the finish keeps that smoke alongside caramel and dried fruit. Drinkers reach for Islay comparisons, with one noting a Lagavulin-like close, an unexpected register for a South American rum that mostly otherwise sits round and sweet. It punches above its modest strength and divides opinion precisely because of that peaty, agave-inflected twist. For anyone curious about smoky rum or the Tequila-cask experiment, it is a genuinely distinctive single cask.