VIEUX VAVAL - 6 ans - Millésime 2015 - Single Cask #WHKVA-5 - Bottled 2021 - 48.20%
Clairins are the rums of Haiti, where there are 532 small artisanal distilleries scattered throughout the only Caribbean island that rebelled against slavery in 1804. Today, Haiti is one of the few countries to maintain purist traditions; with its native varieties of un-hybridised sugar cane, its cultivation without chemicals, its spontaneous fermentation without yeasts and its archaic unfiltered distillation.
Sugar cane is grown in co-plantation with other plant species like bananas and mangoes and is left without intervention until harvest, which takes place 18 months after planting. The harvest is done by hand, the cutting with a coutelas (cane knife) and the transport to the distillery is done with ox-drawn carts. During harvest, the cut canes are carried by hand to the mill. There, they are inserted between the rollers and pressed. The juice drains into a stone container and while another worker collects the juices from the other side of the mill, a human chain transports the pressed canes to a drying area. According to the rules for obtaining the designation "Triple A", the protocol must be as follow: fermentation lasts at least 120 hours and distillation takes place in a maximum of 5 stills with copper plates in direct contact with the flame. Then, the rum must be bottled as soon as it comes out of the still and the bottling takes place in Haiti.
Traditionally, Clairin has always been consumed young and not aged. This Vieux Vaval, aged in ex-Single Malt barrels, was bottled for the 65th anniversary of La Maison du Whisky. It is a unique cask from the Arawaks distillery, made from the "Madame Meuze" sugar cane variety on the great Cavaillon terroir. It is part of the first batch of Clairins aged in 2015and aged for 6 years.
