Surprisingly Young

The Domaine de Courcelles was a distillery founded in the 1930s, then closed in 1964 before being moved (barrels and still) to the Sainte-Marthe distillery which continued to distill with the Courcelles still for 8 years… before closing in 1972. This is precisely the year of the last distillation and the bottle that we are going to taste today; This is a bottling offered by the Italian merchant Velier.

Price : €120 for a bottle of this aged rum, 70cl and 42°.

Age : Distilled in January 1972, aged in 220-litre barrels and bottled in November 2003. So here we have a 31-year-old rum. This is a sugar rum (molasses) and not an agricultural rum.

The story goes that the barrels from this illustrious distillery were long forgotten before being bought by a merchant in 1998, then stored in Marie-Galante where they were transferred to tuns to prevent evaporation.

Today there are many bottlings - and versions - of this rum: The Italian Velier offers it in 42° and 54°, the Swiss from Rhumhouse in 50cl bottles at 47 and 58°. There is even a 1948 vintage released by a French merchant (Claude Marsolle & Cie) and marketed in 1973; a rum that today reaches more than €1600 per bottle (42°), due to its rarity. It should be noted that there is even a white rum version.

The rum has a very beautiful golden color tending towards a light amber . A very fine crown forms on the walls and immediately gives way to numerous and thick tears, which barely in the descending phase give way to new ones, as if at that moment one could already see double.

The nose is surprising and very lively for an aged rum, to the point of becoming destabilizing at first . A fruity and mineral nose where green fruits rub shoulders which gradually open up to a gourmet smell of cooked banana, chestnut cream, but also to earthy notes and damp undergrowth, refreshed by an aniseed breeze.

A very complex and very interesting nose to analyze as it is so complete and changing. It evolves on different registers and the tasting is very pleasant. The rest seems once again to transform it towards spicier regions (rather sweet spices, cinnamon) and fresh vegetables (celery, fennel).

The attack is soft and mellow, and as for the nose we are in a register that is just as vegetal (herbaceous) and fruity (dried fruits (dried bananas) and cooked fruits), but quickly the rum becomes more powerful and overwhelms us with spices (nutmeg, cinnamon) and liquorice woodiness and rich in tannins; it quickly becomes bitter, making the whole thing quite robust and far from the softer and airy classics. A mouth full of character that speaks of the storage time of the rum in contact with the wood, a mouth that suggests that we have perhaps passed the limit there, or in any case that we are not far from it, and even if it gives the rum some hold.

The finish is moderately long but the rum stays in the mouth for a long time. We are still on the register of spices and on the bitterness of the tannins very present and well anchored . Even if the exit is less bitter than expected and paradoxically delivers a silky side that makes the pill go down.

A rum with character! Don't tell him that his nose is charming, he'll make you pay for it as quickly as he enters your mouth. A rather young nose but a mouth that speaks of age (and powder) and a finish dominated by the hardness of the tannins delivered by the barrel. This contrast still has its little effect and everything happens in a rather elegant way. We are inevitably surprised but rather very pleasantly for my part. Enough to wonder what the other bottlings are worth, if this woodiness is even more present on the stronger versions... or not. Does anyone have any feedback to share with us? Rating: 79

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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