VIEUX VAVAL - 7 years old - Vintage 2018 - Ex-Caroni Single Cask #VV17CR-5 - Bottled 2025 - 54.75%
Clairins are the rums of Haiti , where there are 532 small artisanal distilleries scattered across the only Caribbean island that rebelled against slavery in 1804. Today, Haiti is one of the few countries to maintain purist traditions ; with its native varieties of unhybridized sugarcane, its cultivation without chemicals, its spontaneous fermentation without yeasts and its archaic unfiltered distillation.
Sugarcane is grown in co-plantation with other plant species such as banana and mango and is left untouched until harvest, which takes place 18 months after planting. Harvesting is done by hand, cutting with a cutlass (cane knife) and transport to the distillery is done with ox-drawn carts. During harvesting, the cut canes are carried by hand to the mill. There, they are inserted between rollers and pressed. The juice flows into a stone container and while another worker collects the juices on the other side of the mill, a human chain transports the pressed canes to a drying area. According to the rules for obtaining the "Triple A" designation, the protocol must be as follows: fermentation lasts at least 120 hours and distillation takes place in a maximum of 5 stills with copper plates in direct contact with the flame. Then the rum must be bottled as soon as it comes out of the still and the bottling takes place in Haiti.
Traditionally, Clairin has always been consumed young and unaged. This Vieux Vaval , distilled in 2018 in Cavaillon in the south of the country, was aged for 7 years in a single cask (#VV17CR-5) which previously contained Caroni rum from Trinidad .