Interview – Cyrille Lawson, Sales Director at HSE

Cyrille, why has it been so long since we’ve seen a Finition du Monde in ex-sherry casks?

Because we don’t produce it anymore. Historically, we worked with Anthony Macallan. He had specifically increased his cask requirements to take into account our supply from elsewhere. At the time, our single malt finish wasn’t Kilchoman but Macallan! So we had this direct sourcing relationship with him. But following changes (the takeover by Edrington), this link was broken and we no longer worked directly with him. The quality of the casks suffered as a result. We had access to transport casks rather than aging casks.

Transport barrels?

Bodegas don’t necessarily bottle on the property, so they use transport barrels to transport the wine to the bottling line. And it was these barrels, which had only been in contact with sherry for a very short time, that we had access to. When you look at the staves, you can see that the thickness of the contact is very thin, and that the quality of the barrels is not up to standard. As a result, we strictly refused to use them, which is why we no longer do sherry finishes.

However, I am currently working on a new source. But it’s complicated because the Scotch whisky industry preempts sherry casks. Not only have they bought bodegas, but sometimes they buy casks for them. They age their fino, sherry, Pedro Ximénez, etc. in them for free, and then the casks go back to Scotland. This explains why we see so few of these finishes in the French overseas departments and territories.

What do ex-sherry casks bring to the aging process of agricultural rum?

They really bring a kind of explosiveness to the attack with a beautiful richness, particularly in notes of candied fruit in alcohol, peaches in alcohol, prunes in alcohol, and a hint of jammy fruit notes, which are very interesting.

And then there’s roundness and sweetness, right?

The sherry barrels do indeed bring roundness to the mid-palate, but the attack is superbly explosive. I really like that initial click, and then the smooth descent, which levels off with the roundness you feel in the mid-palate and the complexity on the finish. So it really brings a special richness to our AOC Martinique identity.

Are there any sherry finish vintages still available for sale?

Yes, because we brought out a small batch that we had stored away, that is to say, we have a kind of library where we keep around twenty, sixty, or even 80 bottles of references that we have brought out so that we can offer them for tasting from time to time or for sale.