Velier River Antoine Rivers Royal Grenadian Rum

River Antoine is one of the Caribbean's most traditional distilleries, founded in 1785 in Grenada and still crushing cane with a waterwheel driven mill and fermenting wild. This Velier bottling is a pure cane juice rum, agricole in spirit though Grenada lies outside the French appellations, distilled on a pot still, unaged and bottled at a ferocious natural strength.

At 69% it is a full on assault that somehow stays drinkable, built on fresh sugarcane and a core of raw cane sweetness, with wild savoury notes of olive, smoke, minerals, meatiness and green vegetal funk over tropical fruit. This is the grassy, briny side of cane juice taken to its most rustic extreme, a thrilling step on from clairin or overproof white for drinkers who like their rum untamed. Velier bottles it without additives, so the wildness is all in the cane and the method. Astonishing neat in tiny measures, and a powerhouse in a Ti Punch or a Daiquiri.