Neisson 19 ans

Neisson is a small Neisson family distillery from 1931, long a favourite in Martinique, and this is one of its older statements, a single cask aged nineteen years under the AOC. Distilled from fresh-pressed sugar cane juice, not molasses, and bottled at 47.6% with no added sugar, it shows what tropical ageing does to agricole over almost two decades.

The creole column distillate has been reshaped by long maturation in ex-bourbon oak into something notably dark, where cocoa, roasted coffee and dark chocolate lead and the grassy cane sits underneath rather than on top. Apricot and red fruit run through the nose, the palate is soft and deep, and the finish carries dark chocolate, fruit and tea. This is a slow-sipping vieux for drinkers who already know the house style and want its richest, most brooding expression rather than its fresh side.