Rhum de Chamarel
There aren’t an awful lot of wine farms in Mauritius and for reasons I will not delve into, I am stuck on this desolate and terrible island. How sad. Therefore I’ve had to find other ways to quench my thirst. Mauritius has a strong history of rum production since the Dutch introduced sugarcane in the 17th century. At that time, rum and not sugar was the main focus. Priorities lads, priorities.
The Dutch are long gone but rum remained throughout those years. Nevertheless, premium agricultural rum is something of a recent affair and is only about a decade old. Industrial rum is made with molasses, a by-product of sugar production, but agricultural rum is made from sugarcane juice. The resulting spirit is of higher quality, have more character and will generally contain a greater palette of flavours.
I headed to the Rhumerie de Chamarel for a guided tour. The distillery is situated in the South West part of the island and produces agricultural rum in the village bearing the same name. As soon as the tour started, our guide Fabrice explained how Chamarel was situated in a fertile valley at an altitude of 300m. Moreover, the varieties of sugarcane planted were selected to suit the microclimate of Chamarel. I’m not use the word terroir but it is difficult to hear those words and not have the concept of terroir pop up in my mind.
Unfortunately it is not harvest time and the machines are under routine maintenance. Nonetheless, we were offered a tour of the facilities and shown where the cane is chopped, crushed and the juice extracted. This juice is then conveyed to fermenters where happy yeast turn the sugars into alcohol. There was ample technical details to satiate my ever curious mind. It might not be everyone’s cup of tea but I love learning if wild or inoculated yeast were used or how many litres are each batch. I even felt like Fabrice was reading my mind and giving answers to my questions before my lips even moved!
I was impressed by the sight of the “small” copper stills used to distill the fermented sugar solution.
The double distilled rum is harvested by double distillation in copper stills while the classic is single distilled in a Barbet column. Some of the classic is then aged for 18 months in large oak barrels to give the gold and if spices are added, the spices is born. There is also a liqueur range infused with mandarin, coconut or roasted coffee beans.
After the tour came the most exciting part of the visit: the rum tasting.
We tasted 8 different rum and once the liquid hit the back of my throat, the cooler temperatures brought by the rain was certainly appreciated. Call me a snob but I would have preferred tasting glasses with stems rather than the shot glasses that were offered. Still, it was quite a pleasant experience. A white rum is where the product can express itself in its purest form without being unadulterated. While a basic run-of-the-mill rum might advocate a crisp, clean and maybe sweet flavour profile, here I expect a bit more from a premium product. The double distilled certainly delivered with notes of fresh and flambéed bananas with just a hint of white chocolate.
Having been exposed to the world of wine, I am a bit of a purist and additives to my alcohol make me wince. Somehow I succumbed to the charm of the spices that had pleasant notes of cardamom and cinnamon. The coconut liqueur was also a stand-out. Bold, intense and smooth like silk, it went down like a charm. I was teleported to the nearby beach where I was suntanning with my toes in the sand. To be had in a piña colada or sipped ice cold.
They also have an aged rum range and a single cask range. The tasting of these are not included in the tour but can be had at the bar for an extra fee.
All photo credits goes to Stellar Photography.
