This 3 year old rhum agricole from La Mauny in Martinique is a straightforward and approachable expression of its category.

Trois Riviéres Cuvée du Moulin is a 3 year old column still cane juice rum from the La Mauny distillery on Martinique bottled at 40% ABV. In my home market in Seattle it’s one of the few french agricoles I regularly see on local shelves that’s not Clement or Rhum J.M, and with an aggregate score of 6.4/10 on RumX, I came into this review wondering if that shelf space could’ve been put to better use.

We measured a density of 0.946g/cc and a refractive index of 1.3538, indicating no additives, in line with the requirements for the Martinique Rhum Agricole AOC.

While is an agricole, and has all of the grassy, appley, vegetal notes you would expect, it’s fairly mild on the nose. Green apple, oak, a little flower shop, and some raisin are evident up front. On a second nosing you might get some mango and a little copper. The palate leans into the oak, with spicey pepperiness playing counterpoint to apple and prune. There’s some vegetal grassiness, as well as a hint of mint. The finish is pretty moderate, leaving relatively little oak and indexing mostly on the apple, raisin and mint from the palate.

In our blind taste test we thought it was pretty good both as a neat sipper (7.0/10) and mixed into a daiquiri (7.9/10). While not a show stopper, the Cuvée de Moulin provides a pretty approachable entryway into cane juice rum; there’s enough oak and spice to appeal to lovers of other aged spirits, and enough fresh apple to give you a sense of what to expect from French Agricoles. Maybe the shelves in my local liquor store could do better, but they could sure do a lot worse.

 

The Superficial: A quality feeling bottle with nice glass details. The matte embossed labels isn’t winning design awards, but looks reasonably nice and feels good. The metal wrap around the top feels substantial and is fun to pull off, and while the natural cork is nice, I wish there was a wooden stopper.

Tags:  Cane Juice | Lightly Aged | Martinique | Single Column Still | Standard Release