Renegade Pre-Cask Hope (Boulders) 2019

Renegade distils on Grenada from fresh pressed sugar cane juice in the agricole style, and this pre cask release captures the raw spirit before any barrel ageing, bottled unsweetened at 50%. It is openly an exploration of cane and terroir rather than a polished finished product, and it reads that way in the glass.

Distilled on a pot still, it sits at the wild, mineral end of the cane juice spectrum. The nose is dominated by green olive, brine and solvent with a varnish like edge, and the palate echoes it with olive, brine and a touch of leather, closing salty, mineral and faintly metallic. There is little fruit or sweetness to soften it. This is a polarising, intense bottling that recalls the funkiest clairins and Martinique whites, one for adventurous drinkers and tasting flights, best approached slowly and on its own terms.