Velier Isautier Small Batch 2007

Velier's Isautier Small Batch is a fourteen-year rum from Reunion in the Indian Ocean, from the 2007 vintage and bottled unsweetened at 57%. Although Reunion is a French island with an agricole tradition, this is a molasses-based, column-distilled rum rather than a cane-juice agricole, an honest distinction worth making, aged in ex-bourbon wood and presented in Velier's dry, full-proof, additive-free style.

The nose leans on spice, fruit, apricot and vanilla; the palate is woody, spicy, minty and fruity, finishing on wood, vanilla, mint and a bitter edge. Drinkers single out intense mango, papaya and peach alongside milk and bitter chocolate, mint and assertive oak, finding it unusually harmonious and complex for the strength, with a creamy, fruity richness. Dry and unsweetened with plenty of ripe fruit, it makes a fine contemplative sipper and a characterful Reunion alternative for anyone who enjoys dry, high-strength rums like Foursquare's cask-strength range or Savanna, rewarding slow drinking and a drop of water.