Saint-James vintage L'Essentiel / 43°

The latest from the Saint-James distillery, this carafe offers a blend of different vintages: 1998, 2000 and 2003, each having aged more than 12 years in small Bourbon barrels.

The color is shiny, between a copper reddened by the sun and a bronze polished by time, resulting from a captivating old gold crowned with tears as big as suns pointing towards the horizon.
From the start, the rum delivers a very seductive, not to say intoxicating, confit: everything here is melted and gracefully mixes black fruits (prune, fig, cherry in brandy) and curvy exoticism (orangette straight as an i), divinely chocolatey and dressed up with a fragrance of century-old nuts (walnuts).

Add to that an ordered and refined woodiness, roasted to perfection and even patinated (varnish), and you get a company of great beauty, of insolent accuracy. A nose full of seduction (a manicured nose) and balanced as desired that knows how to last over time; better, it never falls into the easy way out and will know how to offer you a more grainy charge (cocoa, nuts), as if raspy, in promise of a more robust mouth.

On the palate, the attack is oily and vibrant, rich and even striking for its 'small' 43°. The rum evolves crescendo and quickly lets the spices and twigs (roasted to the core), cocoa and black fruits speak. A whole and proud mouth that becomes peppery and conquering as the tasting progresses, but without ever losing its affinity with the fruits (always black, prune and cherry in the lead), nor its balance. A slight bitterness takes place reminiscent of dried tobacco leaves, all in elegance and with superb control, and the finish lasts well beyond 43 degrees, in a warm and roasted mouth, warmly spiced (cinnamon) and graceful as desired. Not without recalling that little something magical and magnetic of the very old vintages of Saint-James. The empty glass cries out for help and calls for reinforcements, even the day after tomorrow.

A superb cuvée that recalls older vintages from Saint-James, with this inimitable old-fashioned class and a nose harmoniously mixing tobacco and candied fruit with a devilish balance. If you need only one cuvée from St James, it is surely this one, and we hardly dare to imagine the same rum with even more watts… one day, perhaps? Note: 87

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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