Lady Guadeloupe

Yes I know, this site gives pride of place to traditional rums, yet agricultural rum is just as good, even better depending on the bottle, and is full of wonders. Once again, it's all a matter of taste, sensitivity, and budget too. Because it must be said without beating around the bush, or even without rancor, an old agricultural rum is significantly more expensive than a traditional rum of the same age and for good reason, an agricultural rum does not require the same amount of work as a traditional rum, we will come back to this later. But today let's take a look at the Damoiseau 8 year old rum, which comes to us straight from Guadeloupe, where since 1942 rum has been a family affair...

Price : between 40 and 60€ for 70cl of this agricultural rum. The best thing to do if you have the opportunity is to buy a bottle on site, the price is unbeatable.

Age : this Damoiseau rum is 8 years old and aged in 200 liter barrels before being bottled at 42°.

Traditional or agricultural rum, the difference is therefore very present, but not only in terms of price: working from pure sugar cane juice generates a completely different work, a different infrastructure (from the cultivation of the cane itself), a more substantial and longer human work; Where molasses is only a simple residue of the sugar directly delivered to the distilleries. And it would be a shame to stop at one style of rum rather than another, we are lucky to have wonderful bottles from all horizons, from different terroirs, manufacturing processes, and aging methods. So let's pour some agricultural rum into our glasses today and salute the work of the men and women who are behind each drop that we taste, whether they come from molasses or juice... as long as we get drunk...

The dress of our agricultural has a beautiful amber color , quite attractive and very shiny, enough to make your mouth water from the start, a promising dress for young lady Damoiseau.

The nose is pleasantly fruity with this little touch of vanilla floating on the surface, very pleasant. We can imagine prune, very ripe and dry fruit, stewed. The nose is quite sweet and lets out a beautiful flight of spices (cinnamon, clove) and oh surprise sugar cane 🙂Everything is lovingly wrapped in a woody sheet that supports the whole and gives it a beautiful hold.

Once in the mouth, the rum does not disappoint and remains on the theme of sweetness, the attack is supple and creamy, without shock ; the fruitiness makes its appearance and reveals the same fruits as on the nose, very ripe and sprinkled with sugar cane juice. Very nice balance between the nose and the mouth, beautiful path mastered from start to finish: we let ourselves be lulled without asking ourselves any questions, enjoying the moment and without even imagining the end, as if it were already acquired. We clearly have the impression of having in the glass a rum older than the announced age, which is rather very pleasant.

The finish is impressively long and even unexpected . The fruity and the woody are one and take their time, hand in hand, skipping happily to the back of the throat, marking their presence with a warm note that remains after their passage. A certain ardor that rightly reminds us that the rum is, in fact, not really older than its age, as the beginning of the tasting suggested. We don't even blame it, because this finish pleasantly surprises everyone and closes a beautiful tasting by leaving a beautiful and good memory.

A pleasant and well-balanced agricultural rum that will satisfy any amateur, even the most demanding. And know that Damoiseau offers in its range of hors d'âge rums a whole series of vintages, including an exceptional one from 1953 aged… for 31 years. Tempting, right? 🙂 Rating: 82

To help you (and me) find your way around, regarding the notes:

90 and + : exceptional and unique rum, it is the best of the best
between 85 and 89 : highly recommended rum, with that little something that makes the difference
between 80 and 84 : recommendable rum
75-79 POINTS : above average
70-74 POINTS : in the low average
less than 70 : not very good

Review courtesy of DuRhum.com.

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