Engenhos do Norte North Velho 3y

Engenhos do Norte makes rum on Madeira, one of the few places beyond the French islands entitled to the term rhum agricole, working from fresh-pressed sugar-cane juice on a column still. North Velho is its young aged expression, three years in cask, here drawing on the island's Madeira casks for a wine-touched, spice-forward profile.

Bottled at 40% with sweetening undisclosed, it noses on wood, spice and dried fruit, then drinks with dried fruit, sugar cane, wood and spice before a short, peppery finish. The low strength and brief age keep it light and straightforward, a gentle introduction to Madeiran cane-juice rum that leans more on spice and wood than on the grassy snap of a Caribbean blanc. It earns its keep in cocktails and easy mixing, where its dried-fruit and spice notes carry well, rather than as a long contemplative sipper.