This hors d'âge from the Depaz house has aged for more than 8 years in small oak barrels, before being transferred to port barrels for an additional 11 months. This finish has allowed the rum to acquire more roundness as well as gourmet notes of fruit.
Nico's tasting notes
In brief: round - spicy - dried and exotic fruits - raspberry - cane - caramelized wood - sulphurous finish
On the nose, you immediately get the impression of a very rounded rum, where the nuts and spices (pepper) are heady, and are caught in a mellow thickness. The dried fruits are quite sweet, as in the mixtures we nibble on as an aperitif (dried pineapple and papaya). The rum suddenly bursts into a large raspberry sorbet bubble. The cane splashes as this bubble bursts, and the rather dry wood is no match for the very exotic fruit that rolls in next.
Aeration confirms and reinforces the impression of roundness, and even sweetness, with mellow, subdued vanilla aromas. Banana and chocolate surf on this very greedy side, with cane mixed with caramel.
The entry into the mouth is very sweet, as the nose promised, with notes of coconut and caramel. The toasted wood enters the scene and tightens things up a bit, the previous notes turning into a kind of soy sauce. The mid-palate is very agricultural, with peppery cane and lime zest adding the naturalness and bitterness needed to balance the rum.
The finish is surprising, marked as it is by fairly powerful notes of fermentation, almost vegetable, but also by slightly metallic, rather sulfurous flavors. The long finish is dominated by spices, especially cinnamon.
"The finish has softened this rum considerably, revisiting its typical rhum agricole profile to offer some rather surprising notes..."
