Neisson Single Barrel 2013

A single barrel from Neisson is one cask of one year's cane, bottled on its own — no blending, no marrying, just the family's rhum as one barrel made it. Neisson is one of the last two independent, family-run distilleries in Martinique, founded in 1922 near Le Carbet in the northwest by brothers Jean and Adrien Neisson, now run by Jean's grandson Grégory Vernant-Neisson; it makes barely 2% of the island's rhum from 49 hectares of its own cane, on a copper Savalle column Jean himself modified in 1952, with a five-day fermentation deliberately kept to a low 7.5% for maximum flavor. This Single Barrel is fresh cane juice from the 2013 harvest, distilled on that column, aged in a single oak cask in Martinique's climate, and bottled at cask strength with nothing added under the AOC Martinique; check your label for the cask number, exact age, ABV, and outturn. The Lone Caner calls Neisson one of the most distinctive agricole makers he's encountered — salty, oily, tequila-ish, musky — and its aged rhums remarkable once they unfold. A single cask at full proof shows that character with nothing smoothed over: expect a nose of cane, dried fruit, toasted oak, and the house's buttery, grape-like note with a savory, mineral edge, opening into a dense, oily palate of caramel, spice, and vegetal depth carried by the proof, finishing very long, and opening beautifully with water. Honest note: a collector's single cask, limited and priced accordingly, for the agricole devotee who wants Neisson unblended. Neat, with a drop of water, slowly. One barrel, 2013.

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