Neisson Rhum Agricole Réserve Spéciale is characterized by a rich aroma of dark
fruit and roasted nuts leading to a hearty body of fruit, nuts, smoky oak and vanilla
followed by hints of spice in the warm, lingering finish.
The premium rhum from Neisson, Réserve Spéciale is a blend of rhums aged up to eight years in French and American oak barrels in the distillery aging warehouse.
Neisson harvests sugar cane from 17 plots of land that are either owned or leased by the family. Different canes are grown on these plots according to soil, irrigation and sunlight conditions on each plot. Cane cutting begins at sunrise and by early afternoon, everything that has been cut has been trucked to the distillery where it has been weighed, crushed and the juice put into the stainless steel fermentation tanks. A combination of wild yeast strains, cultivated from the sugar cane fields at Neisson are grown in France by a champagne yeast producer. The criteria for the yeast is the flavor, resistance to high temperatures during fermentation and yeast that will effect complete fermentation.
Sugar cane is harvested during the first six months of the year when the cane has the highest sugar content. Once the tropical rainy season showers arrive in July the sugar content plummets and there isn't enough sugar in the cane to effect good fermentation.
Neisson was the first distillery on Martinique to use all stainless steel fermentation tanks. The tanks were designed to maximize the natural circulation of the fermenting cane juice by using the effect of the rising carbon dioxide gas formed during fermentation to increase the heat transfer from the juice to the tank where that heat is dissipated to the atomosphere or to water that is dripped from the top edge of the tank.
Distillation takes place in a modified Savale still. The single-column, copper still takes the approximately 5% sugar cane juice wine and strips the alcohol from the wine and concentrates it to about 72% Alcohol by Volume.
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The copper still at Neisson was custom made by Savalle. It has been refurbished several times since it was installed in 1932 as the copper is depleted by sulphur compounds in the fermented vesou, or cane juice wine.
All of the clear distillate passes through the sight glass. Gauges above the sight glass monitor temperature at several points in the ten meter tall still.
In order to be called 'Reserve' under the AOC regulations the rhum must be aged at least four years in barrels of less than 650 liter capacity. The first step is to put fresh rhum into ~200 liter French limousin oak barrels made by Sequin Moreau. ~200 liter limousin oak barrelsAfter six months, the rhum is emptied into large blending vats then put into used American oak bourbon and whiskey barrels of about the same size, for three to six years. American oak barrelsEach barrel is tasted every year and is batched with the addition of a little water to reduce the alcohol content slightly. When the blend is almost fully aged and the alcohol content is close to bottle strength the aged rhum is finished in used cognac barrels with new charred heads. used cognac barrels with new charred headsAfter a minimum of four years Neisson Reserve Speciale is the most complex and most well-balanced rhum from Martinique bottled today. Sound like a bold statement? Taste it and let me know.
Other products from Neisson imported by Caribbean Spirits Inc.
