Saint James VSOP is an example of the best Martinique has to offer. This AOC rum is distilled from pure cane juice in a traditional Creole column. It is aged between 4 and 6 years in oak barrels, in a tropical climate that ensures intense maturation. The angels' share amounts to around 8% each year, ensuring optimum concentration. It's quite a feat to offer a rum of this quality at such a reasonable price. This is an authentic rum, with an unbeatable price/quality ratio!
Nico's tasting notes
The nose opens with a typical spicy woodiness, highly representative of the Martinique style. The pure cane juice rum finds all its bearings here, blending into the oak decor with remarkable ease, without becoming a wallflower.
Aeration opens up the aromatic profile a little, revealing a slightly brighter woodiness. The fruit now emerges from the clearing, very ripe, even dried, and rolled in a good handful of sweet, elegant spices.
The palate is fluid but flavorful, with an imposing but already well-melted woodiness. The pepper crushes its grains and spreads its flavors across the tongue, without ever burning it. We then enjoy a cane covered in a leather of a thousand peppery flakes, candied with honey and sweet spices.
The finish gives way to some dried fruit, but it's molten oak that takes center stage.
"A rum that loves wood, and knows how to handle it with class..."
Thomas Solinski
My first rhum vieux agricole! My impressions as a neophyte:
Nose: Warm wood, ripe fruit (white peach) and a hint of flowers (iris?); then peat (hints of Islay Scotch), dried fruit (plum, prune), 4-spice, sandalwood and a touch of licorice.
On the palate: spicy wood on the attack, then cane takes over strongly, with surprisingly fresh, mentholated notes, on a background of white pepper.
Wood and cane are in perfect balance right through to the finish - and on my palate, it's the cane that has the last word.
A typical, surprising rum, both dry and round - and I really like it! I can't wait to taste other vieux agricoles...
Lilian PERES
Impressive value for money.
Antoine BOTTON
This VSOP from Saint James is just great, and especially good value for money.
Stéphane Ti'verre
On the nose 👃🏻: very warm woody notes of cocoa and ripe fruit at first, orange and apricot. It's very spicy, really greedy. Then it opens up to slightly lighter notes of dried fruit around a damp wood that remains very present. A well-cooked caramel asserts itself in the background.
On the palate 👅: it's a little spicy at the start, very woody, taking up the whole mouth, always that old, slightly damp wood, by the way. It's well roasted, peppery, and again with the cocoa and very cooked cold caramel side I found it on the nose (some speak of leather). Dry but not overly bitter, it's easy to grasp, with the true character of an old rum that gives the impression of being older than its age.
The finish is nicely woody and spicy on the long finish, pepper and clove in particular. This is a decidedly well-balanced rum from start to finish, quite charismatic 👌
Verdict ⚡️: this is a wonderful discovery for me, my first VSOP. And it only gets better as I come back to it over time, as the level goes down (oxidation phenomenon with air entering the bottle). The feedback I've read here and there has convinced me about this bottle, which I warmly recommend to all lovers of rhum agricole 😀
Didier Decart
It doesn't beat other Martinican vsops, but the price is right! It's good, and at this price, it would be a shame to miss out!