NV TBRC: O Reizinho (Madeira), Batch 1, 3yo (52.6%)

In the 15th and 16th centuries, Madeira was a major player in the sugar trade – and therefore produced rum. Its Agricola da Madeira, or Agricole Rhum, is lesser known today but still has protected status. All the sugarcane is hand-harvested. This bottling comes from a tiny family operation, who season the canes for up to give days before fermenting it for three to four days. The juicy is then distilled in a twin chamber steam injection pot still rarely used elsewhere, then matured in French oak casks that previously held Madeira. The result is an unapologetically funky sugarcane juice rum, which opens on the nose with a stampede of overripe banana, barbequed pineapple, a pungent earthiness and briny olive, tamed slightly by the treacle quality from the cask influence. The riotous palate is strikingly bold in texture and flavour: dried seaweed and green olive the backdrop for dates, figs, sultanas and a chilli-chocolate, all lavished with salted butter. A nuttiness defines the finish, along with salted peanuts and petrichor. Fabulously good fun.