Damoiseau Rhum Blanc 50%  I’ve covered Guadeloupe’s rum distillery Damoiseau before. I’ve also got a few more of their rhums to cover in the future as well. Today I am taking a look at one of their more entry level products. In the shape of an white agricole rhum bottled at a hefty 50%.

You can get different expressions of this particular rhum, at varying strengths depending on what are you looking for (40,50 and 55%). This particular rum is very popular with bartenders on Guadeloupe.

Damoiseau Rhum Blanc 50% is produced following a 24-36 hour fermentation after which the resulting “wine” is distilled in a traditional Column Coffey still to around 88%.

It is then rested (rather than aged in) in wooden vats for 3-4 months – stirred and aerated. It is then reduced to the appropriate drinking strength and bottled.

In the UK Damoiseau Rhum Blanc 50% is quite readily available thanks to importers Skylark Spirits. You can pick up a 70cl bottle at Master of Malt for £34.70. The rhum comes in a simple tall bar style bottle, with a blue screw cap. The presentation is simple and uncluttered.

On Guadeloupe and in France you can pick this rum up in various bottles size from 35cl to whopping 4.5 litre boxes of rhum! If you have ever been in a French supermarket such as Carrefour you may have seen these boxes of rhum. When I first saw them I didn’t realise what they were and thought they simple hadn’t taken the bottles out of the case.

Should you require more information on Damoiseau then here is a link to their website.

I couldn’t find many reviews of this particular rum but it was reviewed fairly recently by Alex over at The Rum Barrel. 

So let’s see what I make of this rhum now…………..

On the nose Damoiseau Rhum Blanc 50% is a very fresh, very vibrant and very clean smelling agricole. It is full to the brim with juicy sugarcane sweetness. It has an almost floral bouquet which is intertwined with wonderful fruity notes of grapefruit, pineapple and passion fruit. It’s really rather nice.

This is followed by some spices – cardamon and some very light oak like notes. It’s a really lovely nose for an essentially unaged product. Nothing “rough” or off about this nose. Just pure sugarcane refreshment!

Taking a sip of the rum it is as sweet and fruity as the nose suggests. Pretty much everything on the nose is delivered – it’s sweet and fruity and full of “terroir” I feel.

The initial sweetness is often taken on the mid palate by more spicier elements. Again cardamon and some spicy woody like notes. White pepper and a touch of mustard seed.

The finish is quite earthy – tastes a bit stony if that makes sense. It doesn’t hang around for as long as I was expecting however. Despite the 50% ABV this does fade out rather quickly on the palate. Leaving only a slight sweet residue behind.

I would say this is more of a refreshing sorbet type of palate cleanser than a real true sipper. That said it’s not a bad sip. If you want a good kick of sugar cane then a glug or two of this works nicely. Obviously I am much too refined to be necking this neat from the bottle…….hic.

It is a mixer where Damoiseau Rhum Blanc 50% is used the most. In drinks that call for an agricole rhum such as a Ti Punch it works really well. In fact I really enjoy this with Lemonade and for the G and T Lovers – a Tonic Water.

The extra ABV certainly adds flavour to this rhum and in turn adds flavour to your mixed drinks. There are no off notes or anything wrong with this rum. It’s a really lovely example of white agricole.

This type of rhum is the type of staple that doesn’t get talked about and hyped up the way some brands do but its a solid choice. It’s a bit like Wray and Nephew Overproof. It’s just gets on with the job and has no pretentions to be anything else.

I would urge people starting out with agricole to really familiarise themselves with some of the cheaper “entry” level rhums out there. I find a lot of new r(h)um drinkers seem to bypass some of the cheaper stuff.

In the UK agricole is rarely “cheap” (unlike in France) but this is certainly a bottle I would recommend at the price point.