Dzama Rhum Cuvée Noire Prestige

Dzama is a Madagascar distillery whose Cuvee Noire Prestige carries the island name for vanilla into the glass. Although the label reads as a cane juice rhum, this is firmly a soft, sweet style rather than the grassy, briny agricole of Martinique. The character is rounded and confectionery, vanilla, toffee, butterscotch and milk chocolate, with brown sugar and nougat through the middle, and it makes no pretence of being dry.

Three years in ex-bourbon oak adds a little colour and gentle spice on the finish, but the wood is in service of sweetness rather than structure. At a soft 40% it pours easy and warm, the kind of bottle that suits a pour over ice or a long mixer with cola rather than a contemplative neat session. For drinkers who enjoy dessert in a glass and read sweetness as a feature, it delivers exactly that. Anyone chasing depth, dryness or the vegetal snap of a true agricole should look elsewhere.