J. Bally Brut de fût 2007

This Brut de Fut from J. Bally is a 2007 Martinique agricole matured more than fourteen years and bottled at cask strength, 50.6% and unsweetened. Bally is known for its aged vintages, and this is a serious example, all about wood and concentrated fruit rather than easy sweetness.

Pressed from fresh sugarcane juice and distilled on a creole column kept low to preserve the cane congeners, it spends its long maturation in ex-bourbon oak under tropical heat. The nose carries wood, vanilla, spice and a striking sour-cherry note, the palate turns to cassis and dark berries with herbal spice over a grassy cane core, and the finish is woody, spicy and grassy with vanilla beneath. The blackcurrant and camomile thread is unusual and genuinely appealing. Balanced and elegantly dry, it drinks as a contemplative aged agricole with the structure to reward attention.