This Depaz vintage was distilled in 2000 (a particularly sunny year in Martinique), then aged on site for over 17 years in a small French oak barrel.
It was bottled "brut de fût", without adding water or filtering.
Given its rarity (950 bottles in all, and a strong buzz, well deserved as the alcohol and aromas are well integrated), we have limited the purchase of this rum to 1 per order.
Nico's tasting notes
The barrel tasted for this note is n°682
The first nose is powerful and imposing, starting with a highly concentrated nut paste. It takes time to grasp all the nuances of this rum, as its complexity and dynamism send out aromas galore. Pepper and Indian wood infuse a slightly wild energy, and the wood is also in top form. This precious woodiness is waxed with encaustic, which reinforces the sense of concentration, but also introduces a more vegetal aspect that takes us back to the cane.
Aeration gives an almost Jamaican air to this agricultural rum, with a little solvent and very ripe exotic fruits that are beginning to develop acid fermentation. The toasty, waxed woodiness is solid and bright, the dried fruit still frisky; we're unaccustomed to seeing agricultural rums maintain such intensity. Time takes us back to citrus-scented cane, candied for the occasion.
The attack is frank and fruity, with an unsuspected freshness. This is definitely a full-bodied rum. The fruit lingers on the tongue, dried mango, dried apricot, brandied cherries, and then a touch of rustic apple. The woody tannins tighten on the palate and the spices bite, so all attention turns to the toasty oak and its rich veins of years of forest, earth and rain.
The finish is long and purely agricultural, with an almost naked cane, herbaceous and slightly mentholated. You'd almost forget you were tasting an aged rum, so much of the original eau-de-vie has been preserved for this moment.
"A first brut de fût for this distillery, which is sure to leave us with fond memories...".
