How Rhum J.M is made

Sugar cane – the raw ingredient

Mount Pelée is an active volcano so the soil that surrounds the distillery is rich volcanic soil rocks such as andesite, particularly fertile for sugar cane, helped by the rain that comes with the trade winds to this sun drenched island paradise.

Sugarcanes at the foot of Mount Pelée Volcano

Cultivation of its own sugar cane is the first of many aspects of the rum making process that sets J.M. apart. Grafted from a node, each plant is grown in the nursery for eight weeks before being moved to the sugar cane field where it will grow for four to five years until mature enough to harvest, which takes place from February to the end of June each year.

Sugarcane fields by the sea

One of the specifications of the Martinique Rhum Agricole AOC is that the rum is made only using sugar cane grown in Martinique soil and beyond this, to preserve freshness, more than 75% of the sugar cane used for Rhum J.M comes from the immediate vicinity of the distillery.

Three varieties of sugar cane are mainly used: Canne Roseau (B59.92), Canne Bleue (B 69.566) and Canne Rouge (B64.277), and these are crushed immediately after they arrive at the distillery using a roller mill.

Tropical rainfall and unspoiled natural surroundings ensure plentiful pure water for extracting sugar cane juice in the roller mill, fermentation and distillation.

Sugar-rich juice extracted from the cane in the roller mill is piped to the fermenters.

Fermentation

Fermentation takes place in large open-topped stainless steel fermenters.

Distilation

Following fermentation, distillation following the tradition of Martinique's rhum Agricole, takes place in a two-column copper Creole still.

Inside the towering columns of the still, the sugar wine is rectified into a distillate. The different copper plates that comprise the still's columns each act as a still within a still as the boiling cane wine meets water vapour. From these exchanges, alcohol vapour is extracted from the top of the column which passes through cooling condensers to emerge as crystal clear rum at 70% to 73% alc./vol.. During the harvest season, an average of 15,000 litres of rum are produced daily, which will be transferred the next day to a maturation tank.

Maturation

While some Rhum J.M is bottled unaged, much of the rum is set aside for maturation in new or used American or French oak casks and ex-bourbon barrels, ranging from 55 to 400 litres in size.

During the maturation process in the vast cellars, the colour of the rums changes from clear to gold, copper, amber or mahogany. Over time, exchanges between the wood and alcohol allow aromatic qualities to evolve, developing flavours of vanilla, caramel, cream and spice. As more volatile alcohols evaporate, so the rum also mellows.

The end of casks are removed, their inners scrapped and then recharged with burning embers to rejuvenate the wood so when the barrels are reassembled they will contrite new flavours and aromatics to the next batch of rum aged in them. The practice of re-charring is part recycling and part further flavour development.