Velier MHOBA FAQ Plastic 2017

Mhoba works fresh sugar cane juice rather than molasses, which puts it in the agricole camp, though South Africa cannot use that French term on the label. Velier, the Genoese house built around full proof, additive free bottling and the Pure Single Rum idea, selected this 2017 pot still spirit and left it undiluted at 64.3 percent.

Four years of warm maturation in ex bourbon wood has rounded the alcohol without taming the character. Expect overripe and fermented fruit on the nose, then a palate of sour raspberry yoghurt, toasted oak and a savoury, almost smoky edge, with herbal spice through a long finish. It carries the wild fruit intensity of high ester Jamaican pot still rum yet keeps its own funky, cane juice twist. Unsweetened and uncompromising, this is one for drinkers who already chase the loud end of the style.