Clairin Vaval

Clairins are the funky, voodoo-infused cousins of agricoles but Vaval is the young and most reckless one.
Nose reveals a yeast strain reminiscent of lambic beers, restrained rubber and cottonsedge.
Palate with aniseed and citrus, esters and grass notes. Aftertaste is a bit brief after a hefty main act.

This was my first clairin, but compared to Sajous and Casimir it is a bit more clumsy. Great entry level clairin, though.

Terrible... Just terrible ! Grassy notes with lots of alcohol....

I really like every Clairin but the backstory of this is why I prefer this as one of my favorites. Pure, spirit driven, round and tastefull, it is what I search in a agricole...

A beautiful balance of vegetal and spice. My second favorite in this line.

Notes of ripe banana, guayaba, and grass.

This has turned my world upside down. I love it but it’s like no rum I’ve had before. It’s more like something agave. Cheesey, what the hell?!

I keep going back for more but if I was tasting blind I wouldn’t even guess rhum. I’ve never had a white rum I’ve wanted to sip before.

Its appealing to my brain but not my mouth and I’ve never thought of rum as cerebral. It’s kind of delicious. I have no idea how to rate this. I could justify anywhere between 3 and 9. It’s something else completely. It’s amazing.

This is incredibly aggressive on the nose the minute the cork comes out. Olives, brine, rotting fruit - just a faceful. Then the palate (I'll admit to sampling this in a Ti' Punch format to soften the intensity a bit) is herbal, briny, olives again, some rubber tire in there. Rounded out with some dilution. Definitely not for the faint of heart, but a rum experience unlike any other...

I absolutely love Vaval. This is a fantastic agricole rum that I will drink for years to come. Great job Haiti!

It smelt terrible... rotten fruit and death. It tastes surprisingly good... grasy, green and the comes the rotten fruit guayaba... like nothing els. Its good but it killed my Daiquiri /Ti Punch - and not in a good way... just killed it.

Of the four clairins that I recently bought, this one was initially the most mellow. Lots of grassy notes, but overall just average. The cork also fell apart when I opened it. The cork on my new bottle of Clairin Le Rocher was even worse. I have updated that review from a year ago to reflect this nightmare to save the juice.

I was quite disappointed to spend the bucks on two clairins that I rated at 5-6. So, I am always out to prove that the old adage of "two wrongs don't make a right" is up for debate. So I took this clairin and the Clairin Casimir 2018 to mix half and half, and then add a small amount of simple syrup and lime juice to keep it simple. Of course, I added lots of ice. That was one really disgusting drink!!!! So this tells me that these clairins are designed for the craft cocktail bartender "wizards". Sorry, but when one has to add bizarre ingredients like pomegranate juice, elderberry liqueur, or other means of disguising the true flavors of the spirit just to be daringly different, that argument does not fly with me. If the spirit tastes good in the first place, then there is no need to disguise how bad it is with flavors that don't belong. As you can tell, I am not a fan of the craft cocktail industry.

Update six days later: This clairin is the one to blame for the disgusting drink just mentioned. The Casimir 2018 is at least drinkable on it's own with lots of ice. I have had to come up with endless means to disguise the undesirable part of this clairin. This left me no choice except to drop my initial rating of 6 down to a 5. The fact that it has still not been poured down the drain shows why it never got my rating of 1. The Casimir 2018 got bumped up from a 5 to a 6. However, I will not buy either one again. As for the Le Rocher and Sajous, these two most definitely will be repeat purchases.

So which of the flavors in this one do I find to be so offensive to me? Rubber tires! This flavor was also mentioned in some of the "highly recommended" rums such as Caroni Trinidad 17 Year. No thanks, but I have chosen to save hundreds of dollars in not buying that one. For any other rums with rubber in their list of flavors, I will most certainly pass on those. The fairly new Plantation Fiji 2020 also wreaked of my old tire patch kit from my bicycling days. No more rubber tasting for me!

One of the simpler Clairins - maybe good entry in the Champions Legue