Now you might be wondering what rum this innocuous-looking bottle might contain, with the letters “DBD” scribbled in red and plastered over with brown sticking tape. Well I can assure you this is anything but ordinary - it holds perhaps one of the most expensive rums you would come across, the @rhums_neisson Armada Drop by Drop Jeroboam, bottled for the 90th anniversary of the Neisson distillery in Martinique. This isn’t liquid that you would normally find, even if you tried looking in some of the most prestigious rum bars or collections, and I have @the_rum_cartel to thank for so generously sharing a taste of this gem.

The Drop by Drop, as the name might already suggest, was blended literally drop by drop using a pipette into three-litre hand-blown jeroboams, and in extremely limited quantities with only 15 jeroboams in existence. The rhums in each jeroboam are at 45.4% abv, and is composed of:

• 900ml Armada 1997
• 700ml Sacha 2003
• 700ml Armada 1991
• 700ml Armada 1992

The nose, as with most premium Neisson rhums, was very elegant, one that was warm, rich, and brought about notes of delicious hazelnut pralines, and paired with milk chocolates. The complexity was exemplified through the fruitier notes in the rhum, much like that of cantaloupe, but also those notes of heavy varnish, baking spices, and peanuts in it all.

The palate was characteristically Neisson, expressive in the notes of vanilla, an assortment of nuts, mainly freshly toasted peanuts, and just a very slight woodiness, which was to be expected given the long tropical aging of each component rhum. It had good balance, paired with lighter notes of citrus, a mix of sweet tangerines and grapefruits that have that added bitterness. The finish was long, and those nutty notes just continued to stretch on, with a little chocolate on the side too.

A very satisfying Neisson rhum I have to say, although I much prefer those with a heavier fruit influence, something like the Zetwal that I had the opportunity to taste very recently. But I suppose this also demonstrates the versatility of the distillery, being able to create a great array of different rhums for all the different palates out there.

Image Courtesy of @weixiang_liu