Papa Rouyo Eritaj (Batch 1) 2021

Papa Rouyo is a newer estate distillery in Guadeloupe working under the island's IGP, and this Eritaj Batch 1 is made from fresh pressed sugar cane juice rather than molasses. It is pot distilled, aged just over a year and bottled at cask strength of 50.3%, a young agricole that shows its raw material clearly.

The brief spell in ex-bourbon oak keeps things dry and lightly woody, with orange and dried fruit on the nose, allspice and a sweet edge of wood on the palate, and a vegetal, fruity, nutty finish that still carries the green snap of young cane. There is some heat and the profile is fairly straightforward at this age, so it rewards drinkers already comfortable with agricole rather than newcomers. Sipped neat by the cane juice curious, it is an honest, characterful glimpse of a young Guadeloupe distillate finding its feet.