Les Rhums du Sud Saint James Agricole Antilles (Armagnac Finish) 2018

Saint James has been distilling on Martinique since 1765, and this 2018 bears the marks of a small French outfit, Les Rhums du Sud, taking a young AOC agricole and resting it in an armagnac cask. Distilled from fresh pressed sugar cane juice rather than molasses on a creole column still, it is bottled at 52% with the Saint James house signature still legible beneath the wood.

The armagnac influence is the point here, and it reads clearly without overwhelming the spirit. Vanilla, butterscotch and a thread of licorice meet honeycomb and toasted oak, while the finish turns toward raisin and dried fruit picked up from the cask. Two years in wood is short, so the cane freshness and yellow orchard fruit still cut through, making this an instructive pour for anyone curious about what an armagnac barrel actually lends a young rhum agricole.