Background
Old, cask-strength rhum agricole isn’t particularly easy to come by in the United States. When presented with the opportunity to sample a thirteen year old cask strength rhum from Martinique, I knew had to give it a shot. This rhum, a Trois Rivières barrel pick from K&L in California, was distilled from cane juice in 2006 and aged in ex-Cognac barrels until 2019. It was bottled at 51.3%.
Tasting
On the nose, I get apples and pears, sage, thyme, cane syrup, orange peel, black pepper, and faint smoke. Water brings out a little sea breeze and some flowers.
On the palate, it’s more of the same. Black pepper and dried herbs lead the way, followed by unripe pear and burnt orange. Just as I’ve found bourbon-aged agricoles to be very bourbon-y, this Limousin-aged agricole is very… Limousin-y. The experience is far closer to that of dry Cognac than tropically-aged Demerara rums or char-heavy bourbon.
Verdict
My initial impression of this that it was a little boring. Assuming that my palate wasn’t calibrated right, I decided to give it a couple weeks before drinking the rest of my precious sample. Throughout the course of the second tasting, I went back and forth on how to score this. In the end, I’m happy to say that it won me over with some reservations. It leans a bit heavy on the woody and peppery notes, but the Limousin aging is doing things for me which bourbon-aged agricoles have not. I’m not convinced this is truly exceptional, but it does make a more compelling case for aged agricole than I’ve yet tasted. (7/10)