Clairin 2018 Sonson

This is the first clairin that I could enjoy a dram neat, and it really shows up the difference a pot still does for depth and complexity of flavour.
Smell is briny, sour, perhaps almost vinegar or sweetly decomposed. I know that sounds terrible but it's more intriguing than offputting, though it wouldn't really say it was inviting!

Taste is on a different planet to an agricole blanc. It's fruitier on the palate than on the nose, and all those sour or decomposing notes are subsumed into something rich, evolving, complex and incredibly distinctive but really hard to describe. It's sweeter than the Communal and more balanced and approachable than the Sajous. It has far less burnt tyre, and lacks the full on crazy of le Rocher, and instead it's an amalgam of sweet and sour, fruit and grass, infinite layers and huge finish. Somehow, it integrates it all, and makes it fascinating and richly enjoyable.

Makes a fantastic Hurricane and a very intriguing Dark 'n' Stormy, and a great dram by itself now an again. Glad I bought it; it's not like anything else on the shelf, and another reminder that I will always want to have a least one clairin to hand, for nothing comes close to pure pot still unaged rustic juice for flavour, not even Rum Fire!

Never fails to make me smile, and therefore it's got to be that very rare thing, a 9

VINTAGE:2018
COUNTRY:Haiti
TYPE:Sugar Cane Juice(Madame Meuze)
COLOURING:No
NO ADDED SUGAR OR FLAVOURINGS:Yes

Nose: pepper, tonic, mango, orange, sugar cane, rubber
Palate: dry, peppery sweetness, red wine notes, grass, mineral
Finish: long and pleasant, spicy, ash, pleasingly sweet

Aroma is wild agricole style. Taste is nicely ballamced and comolex - grass, lemon, wood and a hit of fruital sweetness. Aftertaste is pleasant and long. Agricole rum lowers can easy add one point 😉