Fine Spirits Rum of the World

Fine Spirits Rum of the World is an independent single cask of agricole-style rum, distilled from fresh sugar-cane juice and bottled unsweetened at 46%. The distillery is not named on the listing, so this is best read as a cane-juice rum in the agricole idiom rather than an AOC bottling, given three years of maturation in ex-bourbon oak.

The most striking thing here is how grape-like it reads, with several tasters reaching for grappa rather than rum. The nose mixes that grappa-like lift with dried fruit, grapefruit and spice, the palate carries grapefruit, barrel wood, red pepper and the same grappa note, and the finish turns toward licorice, leather and bittersweet candied fruit. At 46% it is spicy, dry and faintly bitter, a distinctly idiosyncratic cane-juice rum for drinkers who enjoy a grape-eau-de-vie edge and don't mind a polarising profile.