The final piece in my Barbancourt rhum tasting is one from the 2004 vintage that has been rather comprehensively bottled by various independent bottlers over the past couple of years. I’m not entirely sure what led to this huge batch of 2004 Barbancourt rhums reaching the brokers, but I do think it was quite a golden opportunity to taste Barbancourts that have been aged both in the tropics and in Europe.

The @drinksbythedram sample I have here is from @boutiqueyrum’s Batch 3, aged for six years in Haiti and a further eleven in Liverpool. It was then bottled in 2021 at 59.2% abv with an outturn of 385 bottles.

Well first things first, the nose is rather unique, considering it is a Barbancourt. My impression of Barbancourts have always been one of a soft, mellow dram filled with simple vanillas and cream. Yet this contradicts everything I thought a Barbancourt would’ve been. It has a slight punch to it, funky even, and if nosed blind I would’ve taken it as a Jamaican rather than a rhum from Haiti, with those tropical yellow fruits, slightly rotting, pineapples, a hint of iodine and some brine in the whole mix as well.

The palate was also frightfully confusing. If the nose was dominated by Jamaican-esque notes, the palate is quintessentially a mash of both Jamaican and Haitian elements. The initial palate brings those funky, high-ester notes of pineapples, overripe bananas, brine, all the traditional notes you’d associate with a high-ester Jamaican. Texture-wise, it was rather sharp and spicy on the palate itself, yet as the finish develops, which was one of a medium-length, that sense of familiarity with Barbancourt comes back again, becoming soft, creamy, vanilla, and that of Campino (a strawberry yoghurt sweet from my childhood memories).