Above: Guadeloupe’s Rhum Vieux 8 Ans Cuvée du Millenaire

EVERY CARIBBEAN island has a taste.

Whether you’re trying a rum from Martinique or the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico or Barbados, there’s always a singular ingredient, a unique component in the flavours that reminds you where the rum calls home.

That’s nowhere more true than Guadeloupe, home to rhum agricoles that, though of substantial quality, do have a flavour peculiar to the archipelago that is distinct from the rhums agrioles of Martinique.

For Guadeloupe, you can almost always taste a kind of marzipan-like note in the aged rums, the rhum vieuxs — particularly in those of the island’s most famous distiller: Damoiseau.

We’ve long been big fans of the work of Damoiseau, done at a rustic, lush distillery in the town of Le Moule on Guadeloupe’s island of Grande-Terre.

And the company’s 8-year-old expression has long been a Rum Journal favourite.

It’s called Damoiseau Rhum Vieux 8 Ans Cuvée du Millenaire.

The bottle itself is a work of art, a green-hued jug that gives the feeling of drinking a long-lost, private bottle from some secret collection.

The rhum itself has a somewhat light amber colour, and that distinct aroma of dried fruits and marzipan.

The flavour profile is dominated by notes of dried fruit, pepper, oak, plum and a kind of rarer, more layered marzipan finish.

This is a superb, beautiful rhum, and an important part of any rum collection.

— CJ