Famille Ricci Bielle Bottled for The Auld Alliance 2008

This Bielle was distilled in 2008 on Marie-Galante, the small Guadeloupe island known for cane-variety experiments and high-proof agricole, then bottled at fifteen years by Famille Ricci for the Auld Alliance bar. It is a single cask of pure cane-juice rum, made from fresh-pressed vesou rather than molasses, and carries the IGP rather than the Martinique AOC.

Fifteen years of ageing in ex-bourbon oak has pulled the spirit a long way from a raw blanc without burying its origins. The aroma opens fresh and grassy before chocolate and vanilla arrive, the palate is oily and woody with pastry and caramel sweetness from the wood, and the finish stays dry, floral and oily. At cask strength and unsweetened, 51.8%, it shows the way tropical ageing concentrates an agricole, all the more memorable as a single barrel chosen for one venue.