Cutting sugar cane on the Baie des Trésors estate in Martinique.
They say that necessity is the mother of invention, and in the rum world this sentiment couldn’t ring truer than in the case of rhum agricole. A lesser-known style than its molasses counterpart, agricole – translated as ‘agricultural’ and made from pure sugar-cane juice – came to prominence at the end of the 19th century, when global sugar prices dropped, threatening the economies of French island colonies in the Caribbean, leading to sugar-cane juice being distilled into rum.
Today, the islands of Martinique (which has its own AP), and Basse-Terre, Grande-Terre and Marie-Galante in Guadeloupe (which holds a GI) are all known for rhum agricole production, in which sugar cane is crushed and its juice (vesou) fermented, distilled and sometimes aged.
But sugar-cane juice rum isn’t restricted to the French Caribbean – from Grenada and the Seychelles to Hawaii and Florida, distillers are increasingly working with locally grown sugar cane to make these exceptionally distinctive styles of rum. Not to mention clairin from Haiti and cachaça from Brazil, which are also rums made from sugar-cane juice.
So, why does this style of rum have such an allure? And, most importantly, how can you drink them?
Navigating nuance
‘Agricole is funky, bright and complex in flavour,’ explains Chloe Rose of Call Me AL bar in the northwest of Hong Kong island, previously also of rum-focused The Lobo in Sydney.
One of the brands best known for showcasing the range of flavours achievable in agricole rums is Rhum JM. Located on the northern tip of Martinique at the foot of the infamous Mount Pelée volcano, the producer grows its own sugar cane on half of its 300ha estate. Harvested between February and June, the sugar cane is crushed within an hour of harvest, distilled in two vast column stills and either left unaged or transferred into ex-bourbon, American oak or French oak barrels.
It’s the favourite agricole of Drew Fleming, award-winning bartender and co-founder of the Isle of Man’s Kiki Lounge. ‘Tasting their full range from start to finish is such a journey,’ he says. ‘Particularly their more obscure bottlings; the sugar cane for their Fumée Volcanique bottling is grown in super-volcanic soil. As you’d expect it’s smoky, but it retains the freshness and zip that makes agricole so fun to work with.’
From left: Drew Fleming with Jamie Lewis, Kiki Lounge
Place & taste
Agricole rums are also heralded for their ability to express the terroir in which their sugar cane is grown. ‘What agricultural rum enthusiasts generally love is its incomparable richness, complexity and aromatic diversity,’ explains François Le Grelle of Martinique’s Baie des Trésors. ‘Only the distillation of pure cane juice can extract and concentrate all these flavours. [It is] to rum what single malt is to whisky.’
This distillery makes rums centred on terroir using sugar cane grown not far from Baie du Trésor and the Caravelle peninsula on the Galion Agricultural Estate, which dates back to 1849. ‘Each plot is like a vineyard for fine wines, with no blending between plots or even between years,’ Le Grelle says. ‘After several years of production, we can very distinctly recognise the “DNA” of each plot.’
Renegade Rum’s Dunfermline estate is
the furthest inland of its 14 farm sites
Over in Grenada, Renegade Rum Distillery diligently celebrates the individuality of its volcanic and alluvial terroirs in its rums (which it refers to as cane rum, not ‘agricole’), where cane from single terroirs is harvested and distilled to showcase its distinctive flavours. Rhum Clément in Martinique, meanwhile, uses a single cane variety, canne bleue, to make a rum that features floral and citrussy notes alongside those more typically associated with agricoles, such as grass and freshly cut sugar cane.
In the Seychelles, Takamaka works with local sugar cane grown in…
Source : https://www.decanter.com.master.public.keystone-prod-eks-euw1.futureplc.engineering/spirits/rum/sugar-cane-juice-rum-get-the-juices-flowing-541915/
