This rum is a single cask bottling and is therefore only produced in a very small amount. The rum has spent 20 years on an oak cask and is bottled at cask strength of 55.2% alcohol. Distilled in 1998 and bottled in 2018.
This rum is distilled on Marie-Galante (a smaller island of Guadeloupe), more specifically on the "Distillerie Bellevue". Bellevue means "beautiful sight" and originates from the surroundings in which the distillery is located. This small island is part of Guadeloupe, which, like Martinique, is part of France. Surrounded by hilly sugar cane fields, the Bellevue Estate has been in operation since 1821 - the year is engraved in the front of the sugar cane mill that squeezes the sugar cane juice out of the sugar canes - a rare sight in the Caribbean. The property was bought by a soldier returning from India, who subsequently made it into a distillery.
The rum from Guadeloupe is not as well known as the Martinique rum, due to the size of the island's distilleries. The distilleries in Guadeloupe, in contrast to Martinique, are typically small family owned distilleries.
This rum has an enormous rich aroma of citrus fruit, prunes, leather and rubber as well as a beautiful honeydew. When you taste it, it has an immediate dryness as the finest agricole rhum from Martinique, but it is somewhat deeper and more potent in the taste. It fills the mouth with an intense taste of oak, grass, citrus fruit and mature apple.
