Casimir 2017 Single ex-Rhum Cask 22 Month Old Clairin Ansyen / Dom Costa, Velier

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 Douglas Casimir distillery was established by Duncan Casimir in 1979 and is today run by his son, Faubert. He is considered the finest distiller in the Barradères region, a unique quirk of which is to add herbs or vegetable matter to pure cane juice during fermentation, to enhance the spirit’s aroma. Casimir adds citronella, cinnamon and occasionally ginger. Distillation takes place in a pot still using Hawaii Blanche and Hawaii Rouge cane.

This 22 month aged single cask was barrelled in June 2017 in an ex-rhum cask, and bottled in April 2019. It was selected by Dom Costa of Velier.