Velier Le Rocher Clairin Le Rocher 2020

Velier bottles this single-village clairin from Le Rocher in Haiti, made from fresh cane juice and fermented spontaneously with wild yeasts in the local tradition. Clairin is agricole in spirit but cannot use the word, and it turns the dial well past French-island rhum: heirloom cane, a pot still, and no chasing of a polished profile.

Unaged and unsweetened, the rum shows its raw character openly. The nose runs to yoghurt, green olive, brine and a hit of varnish, while the palate is salty and smoky with a clear ester edge and a savoury, almost bacon-like depth. The finish carries iodine, smoke, citrus and olive, briny and medicinal in the way good clairin should be. At 47.5 percent this is a sipper for those who want terroir without sweetness or sanding down, best neat or in a stirred drink that respects its salt and smoke.