Reviewer: Tashtego (with notes from Pickwick)
Distillery: Distillerie Bellevue
Origin: Marie-Galante, Guadeloupe
Bottle Size: 700 ml
Bottle Count: 236
ABV: 64.3%
Distilled: 2016
Base Material: Cane juice
Still: Column still
Aging specs: Aged 8 years in ex-bourbon
Bottled: 2025
Nose: Rancio, cane, barrel
Palate: Candied nuts, orchard fruits, grass, grapes, cheese
Finish: Sugar cane
From the French overseas department of Guadeloupe comes this Bedford Park aged agricole rum. I’ve had a lot of agricole rum over the past few years, and mostly I prefer it unaged. Most aged cane juice rums from Martinique and Guadeloupe on the shelves in America are younger rums that have trouble standing up to the wood, so you get a lot of oak that doesn’t mesh well with the vegetal notes of a good cane juice rum. But this bottle is from a well regarded distillery on a small island off the coast of Guadeloupe, and it’s been aged quite a while. Let’s see how it measures up.
There’s not much to go off on the aroma. It’s similar to a lightly aged élevé sous bois agricole where you get some barrel and a bit of a sour, yeasty nose. Thankfully, there’s a lot more when you go in to taste it. I get a nice medley of orchard fruits - mostly peaches - alongside a nuttiness from the barrel. There’s some grassiness from the cane juice distillate, and some grape and even some soft cheese notes. It’s quite French, almost like a picnic with a white wine and Brie. Despite the 8 years in the barrel, it’s not too oaky. The finish is mostly fermented cane juice. It’s quite drinkable at 64.3%, which is nice because I think it’s almost exclusively a sipping rum. I can’t think of many cocktails that do well with aged agricole, especially one as unique as this.
It’s not the most complex rum, but it’s much better than a lot of aged agricoles I’ve tried. I like the nuttiness a lot. Overall it’s probably an acquired taste and not as approachable as an molasses rum aged for a similar amount of time. For Taste, it’s a 3. It’s a strong rum, but probably not one I’d reach for too often. For Haste, it’ll also land on a 3. It’s available at Raising Glasses for $100, and that seems like a fair deal given the proof, the age and the scarcity of rums from this particular distillery. If you’re an aged agricole fan, this one’s for you.
Taste/Haste Scale: 3 / 3
