Poisson Père Labat Dame Jeanne

Distillerie Poisson on Marie Galante bottles under the Pere Labat name, a small-batch house long reputed for its cane juice blancs. This Dame Jeanne release is distilled from fresh-pressed sugar cane juice and arrives unsweetened at cask strength, 51.9%, in the high-proof tradition the island's distillers favour for their whites.

Distilled on column in the house style and bottled without ageing, it keeps the hallmark freshness of a good agricole blanc: sugarcane sap, fresh mint and bright citrus, with a vegetal core and a gentle iodine, briny lift. The texture is rounder and oilier than the strength implies, which keeps it characterful without turning aggressive. A natural for a Ti Punch, where lime and a touch of cane syrup let the green, peppery cane do the talking, and well worth sipping neat for those who like agricole at its most direct.