Rhum Depaz XO

RumShopBoy tasted the whole Depaz range at UK Rumfest and picked the XO as the best of them. Depaz is the distillery at the foot of Mont Pelée in Saint-Pierre, Martinique: when the volcano erupted in 1902 and killed Victor Depaz's entire family, he came back, planted cane on its slopes, rebuilt the distillery in 1909, and resumed production in 1917 — fifteen years to the day after the eruption — on an estate founded in 1651 by the island's first governor; the house is now owned by La Martiniquaise alongside Dillon. XO Grande Réserve is fresh cane juice from the volcanic fields, distilled on a copper Creole column, aged a minimum of six years — the AOC's XO threshold, and Depaz's blend draws on older barrels — in oak, and bottled at 45% ABV with nothing added; check your label. RumX's 180 reviewers score it 8.0, the community's pick for mature and oaky. RumShopBoy credits the estate's terroir — the fertile volcanic land and the purity of its water — for the character of a superb agricole. The Lone Caner calls the XO one of Depaz's really-quite-good starters. Expect a nose of dried fig, toffee, vanilla, tobacco, and toasted oak over the estate's grassy, mineral cane, opening into a rich, rounded palate of caramel, dried fruit, cocoa, and warm spice with the cane's green edge a whisper underneath, finishing long and dry. For a cigar, a Ti' Punch vieux, or neat, it's the volcano's old rhum. Since 1651, rebuilt 1917.

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