A fresh, vegetal clairin Haitian white rhum style; bottled by Velier.
The Rocher is unique to Velier’s clairin range as it is distilled from syrup, not cane juice. The syrup from three cane styles is boiled to retain the aromatics.
It is distilled by Romulus Bethel at his Le Rocher site in Pignon through a single pot still and bottled at still proof.
The distillery is built on a rock and takes its name from a verse of the Gospel Of Matthew 7: 24-27, “The foolish man builds the house on the sand and instead the wise man builds it on the rock.” Bethel is quite a religious man.
Quite estery, this has a yellow tinge in colour despite being straight off the still. The nose is fresh and vegetal (cut grass); almost mezcal like. The palate is quite funky, coffee beans leading into the finish.
One of the most exciting rum imports of recent years, Clairin represents a style of rhum drunk locally but rarely seen outside of Haiti. Clairin is distilled from cane sugar in the style of a white rum but, made by traditional methods and bottled at still strength, is less refined and often rawer. It’s often compared to rum as mezcal is to tequila.
This selection of Clairin has been chosen by Luca Gargano’s European importer Velier. No pesticides or herbicides are used in the farming, sugarcane is cut by hand and immediately transferred to a distillery for fermentation. The organic cane and natural yeast prompts spontaneous wild fermentation. The stills are heated by direct flame.
There are approximately 50 distilleries in the Caribbean, but over 500 in Haiti. Exports are usually blended from a number of these distilleries, so this series is a very rare chance to experience these distillery-specific clairin in their purest form, just as the locals do.
