Neisson Collection Armada 1995

Neisson, the small family distillery at Le Carbet founded in 1931, released this Collection Armada from its 1995 vintage, drawing on the estate's reputation as a favourite. Made from fresh-pressed sugar-cane juice on a column still and aged tropically in Martinique, it shows what time in the Caribbean heat does to a fine agricole bottled at a modest strength.

Held at 43.8% and unsweetened in the AOC tradition, it noses on sugar cane, white chocolate, vanilla and cappuccino, then carries that same creamy, coffee-and-cocoa richness across the palate alongside caramel, before a finish of coconut, peaches, lime and candied fruit. The low proof goes all but unnoticed, the rum losing none of its character or depth, and the cane stays present through all the dessert-like layers. A refined, harmonious older agricole for unhurried neat sipping, the kind of bottle drinkers hold onto.