Rhum Père Labat 8 Year Old Vieux Agricole De Marie Galante (750ml)

The exceptional Pere Labat Rhum Agricole is finally in California! Distilled on the small island of Marie-Galante, the estate's sugar cane fields, distillery and warehouses sit on a pristine 1300-acre estate. The estate has distilled rum since the early 1900s and still uses only locally grown sugarcane varieties native to the island. Rhum agricole is produced from fresh-pressed sugarcane juice rather than molasses and is highly regulated by the French government for quality. Distillerie Poisson, is the oldest on the Marie-Galante and has one of the Caribbean's oldest stills built in 1916. Little changed here until 2007 when Guadeloupe native Jean-Cedric Brot purchased the distillery to reinvigorate the storied brands that made it famous. Four kinds of hand-cut cane are used: red, white, blue, and gray. Some is grown on the estate, some is purchased from local growers. Fermentation for 72 hours yields a vin de canne at 5% abv. Distillation takes place in one of two copper creole column stills which have 11 stripping plates and 4 rectifying/enriching plates. The spirit comes off the still between 69% and 71% abv. The Vieux Agricole is Distillerie Poisson's top product. After 8 long Caribbean summers, the rhum has lost more than 40% of its original volume a loss of 80Ls fro the original 200 liters that were filled into ex-bourbon American oak casks.