Patrick St. Surin crafts his Clairin in the most thoughtful way possible: harvesting his own sugarcane and using sugarcane syrup made nearby, native yeast fermentations, and distilling in small, alembic stills. The spirit expresses the raw, natural terroir of Haïti in the most visceral way. In Carrefour Des Pères, the plateau that forms much of the middle of the island gives way to plains that reach the sea to the north. There he farms just over ten hectares of sugarcane, including local varieties like Medialande, Pete Coca, and Zariete. Once the cane is harvested, it is carted back to the distillery by donkey and immediately crushed. The juice is then poured into large open-top fermenters called pièces where a small addition of sugarcane syrup is added in the local tradition. Fermentations occur naturally, usually taking 10-15 days to complete. From here, the fermented cane juice is loaded into a small pot still and is distilled twice, rested, and then bottled by hand at full proof, in this case 55% abv. The result is one of the purest expressions of sugarcane to be tasted.
