Velier Casimir Clairin 2016

Clairin is Haiti's village cane juice rum, agricole in spirit but unable to use the word, made from fresh pressed sugar cane juice with wild, spontaneous fermentation and heirloom cane that drives a turbo charged funk. This Casimir bottling comes from Velier, the most respected name in collectible rum, presented unaged and unsweetened at a natural 48.3%.

Distilled on a pot still, it is intense and uncompromising, the kind of spirit that can read as something other than rum in a blind pour. The nose is estery and vegetal with green olive and a synthetic, briny edge, the palate stays mineral and salty with more olive and ester, and the finish turns bitter and woody with a cool cucumber note. Creamy and oily in texture despite its rawness, it is a slow sipping rum for adventurous drinkers drawn to the wildest, most savoury end of the cane juice world.