Karukera Single Cask 2018

Karukera is a Guadeloupe agricole house relaunched in 2002 and known for single cane bottlings, and this single cask from the 2018 harvest is made from fresh pressed sugar cane juice and bottled unsweetened at a natural 54.3%. It is an elegant, slightly unusual agricole, the kind that often clicks with whisky drinkers thanks to its dry, oak driven side.

Distilled on a column to keep the green cane character, then matured in ex bourbon wood, it marries cane freshness with rich, roasted cask notes. The nose runs dark chocolate, vanilla, sugar cane and brown sugar, the palate keeps vanilla and caramel over chocolate and a herbal lift, and the finish turns woody with vanilla, fresh notes and walnut. The cane stays present beneath the gourmand sweetness rather than buried by it, making this a refined, balanced cask strength agricole for drinkers who like drier, wood forward rum.