Velier Clairin World Championship 2017

Velier, the Genoa house that put Haitian clairin on the map, bottled this Clairin World Championship from the 2017 harvest. Clairin is Haiti's village cane-juice spirit, made from fresh sugar-cane juice with wild, spontaneous fermentation and left unaged at high proof, agricole in spirit but unable to use the word.

This pot-distilled clairin is intensely savoury and remarkably clean: grass, green olive, a cured pepperoni note and crisp green apple on the nose, turning vegetal, peppery and meaty on the palate before a salty, herbaceous finish. Bottled at 46%, it is wild and vegetal yet drinks with surprising clarity, performing dry and clean in a Ti' Punch where the funk softens. A characterful, terroir-driven Haitian white for drinkers who enjoy the savoury, briny end of cane rum.