Island Compagnie RHUM ISLAND St Barth XO 2011

Island Compagnie bottles this RHUM ISLAND St Barth XO from Saint Barthelemy, a 2011 distillate of fresh-pressed sugar-cane juice aged ten years. Cane-juice rum from St Barth is agricole in spirit rather than name, and ten tropical years give it real wood-driven depth.

The ageing shows clearly, with oak, cedar and a fruity, floral lift on the nose, then oak, treacle and cedar with a sweet edge on the palate. The finish brings green apple, more sweetness and fruit. The sweetness here reads as oak and concentration rather than confirmed additive, and at 45% it sits as a relaxed, wood-forward sipper. This is a rum to drink neat rather than mix, an aged cane-juice rum that trades the grassy snap of a blanc for mellow barrel character.