Montebello 1948 - 55%
Picture taken at the steps of the Duomo die Siena (Cattedrale Metropolitana di Santa Maria Assunta)
Savor it slowly, this spirit was distilled 3 years after the last bomb hit Berlin in 1945. Would love to be carried back to Guadeloupe to experience life and production back these days. It's said to be matured 100% tropically and was bottled in 1990. Specs you see, hear of and taste from rarely to never. We really love the edgy and vegetal character of Carere's Montebellos and consider it Grand Cru within the French Style Rums. According to Jerry Gitano this gem was distilled with a mix of fermented molasses and sugarcane, so one cannot call it Agricole.
Nose
Dori me, interimo ayapare, dorime. Ameno ameno! We're in an old, dim catholic cathedral, enveloped with deep notes of swirling incense, smoldering myrrh and many undefined herbs! What a supreme welcome! Further we descent to deeper, more earthy impressions of the purest Coca-Cola essence (which is very Damoiseau in our book), manioc puree and cooling eucalypt leaves (not mint!). After some minutes in the glass we even find some macadamia and hazelnuts, together with beautiful flowers like violets, Ylang-Ylang and Jasmin. Someting one can also find in the 80's Macallans. Apart from being phenomenal, the bouquet is of an abysmal depth.
Palate
Pardon our french, but this is godamn great. Super rich (almost monumental), powerful and heavy like a marble bench, even after 42 years in the cask! And guess what, the oak influence is perfectly integrated. We get all the herbal and earthy flavours we found on the bouquet, but combined with an astonishing delicatness of caramelized dates in milk chocolate. But what's most thrilling is the slight medicinal, smokey touch, which slightly reminds us of La Bonne Intention. Good gracious! Even at 55% the texture is oily and smooth like mohair wool.
Finish
A long and satisfying, bittersweetness forward aria of roots, jungle herbs, cocoa and burnt tobacco. Once again, the bitterness is perfectly integrated.
Rating
It's time we start reviewing bad ones again. Seriously, because we're afraid to become inflationary. Yet, this stunner leaves us no choice but to rank it into the Champions League of r(h)um. We cannot help but think of Botticelli's Inferno. Dark and mysterical, yet of dazzling beauty. Together with a few other bottlings (to be reviewed soon), this Montebello made it into our top 5 French Style rums and is definitely a candidate to take on a lonely island, if we were forced to.
