Dzama Lucien Fohine 1984

Dzama is a Madagascar producer working from fresh pressed sugar cane juice, and this Lucien Fohine is a 1984 vintage aged twenty-eight years in ex-Bourbon oak, an unusually long maturity for an island cane rum. Madagascar sits outside the French appellations, so this is agricole style rather than agricole proper.

Nearly three decades in cask carries a cane spirit deep into its mature register, layering wood, light smoke, spice and a touch of coconut and citrus over the dried, grassy core. The record points toward an oily, characterful older rum. Bottled at 40 percent, it is a contemplative sipper and a rare chance to taste Madagascan cane juice with serious age behind it.