Holmes Cay Reunion Island Grand Aroma Rum

Grand arôme is the French islands' answer to Jamaican funk — a high-ester molasses rum fermented with dunder — and only two distilleries still make it: Le Galion on Martinique and Savanna on Réunion. Holmes Cay — Eric Kaye's New York independent bottler, founded in 2019 on single-cask, additive-free transparency — brought Savanna's to the US for the first time as Single Origin Edition No. 3, and Esquire highlighted it among the best rums to drink right now. Réunion is a French island in the Indian Ocean off Madagascar, and Savanna is its cult distillery; the Grand Arôme is molasses rum fermented ten days with vinasse, as the Réunion GI requires, distilled on the Savalle copper column still, and bottled in New York State unaged at 57.5% ABV with no sugar, color, or flavoring. Holmes Cay's notes: pickled green tomato and black olive on the nose, then subtle flowers, overripe tropical fruit, saline, and herbs, with sun-dried tomato and candied fruit on the long finish. Memphis Rum Club, an enjoyer of bold, funky rum, found it really hit the spot — completely different from any pot-still Jamaican — and hoped more Savanna would follow. Paste tasted it against its agricole sibling and called both wild and weird. Honest note: this is an ester bomb at 115 proof, savory and strange, for the drinker who loves Hampden DOK and wants to hear the French version. For a Mai Tai or Jungle Bird that needs a wild card, or neat with water for the funk devotee. Réunion's grand arôme, in America at last.

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