What is it? Traditional Rum (molasses based, distilled in a column still) from Guadeloupe, produced at the little known distillery of Bonne Mère. The rum is distilled and matured for 3 years, tropically, in a mixture of ex-bourbon casks and French oak casks, then it was bottled by independent bottlers Cane Island for their Single Estate Rum series.

No details on chill-filtration or colouring, so can’t say with any certainly, but I don’t believe it’s been coloured, and judging by the taste any chill-filtration is light.

Bottled at 43% abv.

Sugar? No

Nose: Very floral at first, like walking into a flower shop. Dried herbs; marjoram, parsley, some thyme and rosemary. Smells of being outside on a warm day, cutting your lawn with warm grass and dusty soil. The fruit is of very bitter oranges, kumquat, sharp mango and dried banana chips. Things start to get quite oaky after a while, surprisingly so actually given it’s youth; cinnamon bark, liquorice, fresh nutmeg and milk chocolate all show up for the party.

Palate: Medium mouthfeel. Dry. Herbal cough lozenges (ones from English old school sweet shops, they’re like a small rectangular, hard, beige/light orange coloured things and you’ll know what I mean if you had them). Marjoram and rosemary again, Pontefract Cakes (more old fashioned English sweets; flat liquorice things), Earl Grey tea, orange flavoured Salmiak – if there is such a thing – a little tar and some fennel seeds. Not as much oak here as on the nose, so just a touch of clove and then a quite a bit of milk chocolate the longer it is in your mouth.

Finish: Medium. The chocolate comes through from the palate and the finish is slightly sweeter with more actual orange, maybe marmalade, white coffee with cream, vanilla and an almost corn/grain note. Some prunes and a little raisin are there too just as it ends.

Thoughts? Unexpected. This little bad boy is only 3 but punches well above it’s weight. Sure, it’s a little rough around the edges but for only 3 years in the cask it’s packing a lot of flavour indeed. It’s sitting somewhere between a Bellevue (which are getting stupidly expensive, and I why I bought this instead) and something from Martinique. Whilst this is from molasses it’s a really good French style rum and one I’d definitely recommend picking up if you want to branch out from the normal flavour paths.

This cost me £33, which may seem like a lot for a 3 year old rum, but lets remember it’s 3 tropical years so you’re running at around 8-9 years European equivalent, and I can assure you it’s got a lot to give – it blows away a lot of the “premium” crap that’s out there at the moment that’s for sure. I’d happily repeat purchase this one.