Famille Ricci 7th Symphony Marie-Galante Barbados Cask Strength

Famille Ricci's 7th Symphony marries rum from Marie-Galante and Barbados into a cask-strength island blend, drawing on both molasses and fresh cane juice across pot and column stills and bottled unsweetened at a formidable 69%. The blend's mix of feedstocks and origins gives it a foot in both the cane-juice and molasses camps, and the strength makes it a serious proposition.

For all its power the nose is inviting, sweet and fresh with sugar-cane, fruit and a coconut lift. The palate is woody and fresh with fruity, vegetal notes, the 69% making itself plainly felt, before a finish of oak, citrus and cinnamon. Despite its youth it shows gourmand, caramelised character alongside a saline, agricole-leaning freshness from the cane-juice portion. This wants water and patience, and it rewards them; for drinkers who enjoy high-proof, unsweetened blends with real intensity, it is a striking pour.