New Orleans-based Roulaison Distilling offers one product and one product only: Roulaison Rum, a white rum, pot-distilled, unaged, and, as the company puts it, “full of robust, funky complexity.” Made with intense traditionality — spilled and leftover rum is used to spark fermentation naturally — this is a white rum for those unafraid to get a little hogo in their glass.

For the uninitiated, Roulaison can be a little off-putting at first, with its intense aromas of torched peaches, matchstick heads, overripe banana, and indistinct petrol notes. It’s as funky as promised, but there’s intrigue and, to be sure, a sense of balance amidst everything going on. On the palate, the initial rush is sharp and tight, but the ester-heavy fruit that washes over you after that is actually quite soothing. Notes of toasted coconut, more banana and citrus, and some vague, sweet spice notes all interplay in a Jamaica-style on the tongue, and though there’s ample petrol-and-mushroom funk underlying it all, this manages not to detract from the experience, instead giving an urgency and a groundedness to a body that otherwise might feel too fruit forward.

It’s really interesting stuff — and the more I taste it, the more I like it.

88.2 proof. Reviewed: Batch #001.

A- / $35 / roulaison.com

Roulaison Rum

$35

9

Rating

9.0/10

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