Vaval 2017 Single ex-Whisky Cask 22 Month Old Clairin Ansyen / Michele Franciosi

Clairin is considered the national spirit of Haiti, and is an eaux-de-vie produced similarly to agricole rum, generally by a single local distiller using sugarcane from their village’s and adjoining fields. Largely secreted from the world for nearly 200 years, clairin was introduced to the world by Italian distributors, Velier, after Luca Gargano and Daniele Biondi discovered these distillers on at trip to Haiti in 2012.

The Arawaks distillery was founded by Danois Vaval in 1947 and is today run by his son, Fritz. It is located in Cavaillon and possesses 20 hectares of Madame Meuze sugarcane. It operates a continuous creole column still fitted with ten plates and a handmade condenser made from a gasoline can. The spirit is then bottled at its still strength of 50-55% ABV.

This 22 month aged single cask was barrelled in June 2017 in an ex-Whisky cask, and bottled in April 2019. It was selected by Michele Franciosi of The Sign bar, Italy.