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Team RFP: But what brought you to rum, Maître Judor?

Eric: My Austrian origins naturally led me to Guadeloupe. Isn’t it said that West Indians are great seducers? My father is Guadeloupean and he hooked up with my mother, who is Austrian, in Paris, when they were both students there. For reasons that will not escape the most perceptive of your readers, we went to Austria more often than to Guadeloupe for the vacations, but like all military families, we were entitled to a trip home from time to time. So I might as well have thrown in a Schnapps, a largely unknown spirit in my eyes.

Team RFP: But when you say Guadeloupe, you say rum…

Eric: My love of rum came to me very early on, and in small bursts. My father comes from Grands Fonds Saint-Anne, in the south of Grande Terre. When you come back home, it’s always the round of the tontons and tatas, and of course, between the dekolaj’ and the landing, there’s no shortage of opportunities. When I was a kid, I didn’t drink rum directly, but my memories are colored by everything that surrounds the Ti-Punch ritual: the smells, the colors, the sugar, the lemon, the fruit. I have two real Proust’s madeleines: the passion fruit my aunts used to give me and the ice cream from the mammas on Saint-Anne beach.

Team RFP: Ah yes, those famous mammas who make crushed ice!

Eric: Yes, I have a very sensual memory of those little beach stands where they would rub ice and serve it to us, crushed, in plastic cups with a dash of orgeat syrup.

When the young company Cane came to see me to propose a collaboration, I accepted on condition that we make a product that really makes sense. It’s not really my job, but I didn’t want us to create yet another bottled cocktail. For this first “Jus d’or”, we worked to revive my memories, and did many, many tests – a tough job – to find the right balance between maracuja (editor’s note: a variety of passion fruit), orgeat syrup and rum.

Team RFP: Where do the ingredients come from?

Eric: The fruit purée that goes into the composition comes from Guadeloupe and the rums, without going into detail, are a blend of rums from Basse Terre and Marie-Galante. During our tests, to simplify our work and reduce our carbon footprint, we tested solutions in France for sourcing the fruit purée, but none of the tests were conclusive. I can’t say where that comes from. Do purees travel badly? I don’t know, but it’s better over there! I’m very happy with the result and the public response has been fantastic. We were able to show it off at the Rhum & Food festival in Guadeloupe, and it was very well received, regardless of my personality. As proof of this, the friends I gave a bottle to come back regularly to see me for a refill.

Team RFP: When will metropolitan France be able to discover Golden Juice?

Eric: That’s one of our challenges at the moment, especially as we’ve received an enthusiastic welcome in Saint-Barth: a local winery bought the entire first production batch from us. We’re in the process of reproducing it so that we can take part in the Rhum Fest Paris, meet a wider public and look for a distributor in mainland France.

Team RFP: What does the future hold for Jus d’Or, which some people think is just another joke, with that label reproducing the shape of your skull?

Eric: We’re taking things one day at a time, but if I’m asked for my opinion on what’s next, I’d like to see other recipes, but always related to my childhood memories or my travels back home, because, as I’ve said before, I’m only interested in this adventure if it has real meaning.

Cet article Meet Eric Judor, a man of gold est apparu en premier sur Rhum Fest Paris.

Team RFP: Hello Maëva, can you introduce yourself in a few words?

Maëva: I’m Maëva Mécorvin-Flandrina, Marketing and Communications Manager for Maison Bologne, producer of Bologne rums. I’m honored to be able to promote the richness and values of my island through this local product. Team RFP: In 2024, Bologna is celebrating the year of the black cane. What does this involve? Can you explain the specificities of Bologna’s terroir and what this famous black cane is? Maëva: We’re approaching the 10th anniversary of black cane. This variety of cane is rare and very difficult to produce. It has always been present in the composition of our rums, like the famous “yellow label”, and then 10 years ago we embarked on a 100% canne noire saga. The aromatic intensity of this variety has enabled us to offer rums with a strong Bolognese identity. The cane variety isn’t everything, as it’s very sensitive to terroir, and has given a different result on less volcanic plots. Black cane has become Bologna’s gold.

Team RFP: You won’t be exhibiting at this year’s Rhum Fest Paris, but you have placed a few references at the Comptoir des Innovations. Can you tell us a little about them?

Maëva: For the 10th anniversary of Rhum Fest, our cellar master will be present, and we’ll be showing visitors a preview of a new range due for release at the end of the year. While we’re waiting to unveil the name of this new range, we’ll be talking about Projet X. This will be the first white agricultural rum cuvée, with special features linked to the masterclass scheduled for Monday May 6 at 4.30pm: the Art of Fermentation.

Team RFP: People speak very highly of François Xavier Sobczak, your young cellar master, and having met him, I can confirm that he’s a fascinating character. Is it easy for a marketing person to follow such creativity?

Maëva: In a human-scale company like Bologna, we have the privilege of working closely on every link in the creation of our products. François-Xavier knows perfectly well how to steer the ship, protecting the historical identity of our products while bringing his own vision to bear. The Projet X range is just like him: creativity, alchemy and, above all, talent. For a marketing person, that’s very inspiring and challenging!

Team RFP: In 2023, you also celebrated the Chevalier de St George, aka Joseph de Bologne. What does this character mean to you? He’s found here and there in literature, but is relatively unknown in mainland France.

Maëva: The Chevalier de St George is a historical figure we’re keen to bring back to light. A virtuoso in classical music, and one of the first black commanders, he left a particular mark on his era. He was also the son of one of the estate’s first owners. In the United States, he is a true icon, and the film Chevalier, produced by a Disney subsidiary, was even released on the big screen there. In Guadeloupe, several music schools, hotels and educational establishments bear his name. We also support classical music festivals featuring him, and who knows, maybe one day a new vintage in his name?

Team RFP: This year, we’re inviting the Women Leading Rum association to the show. Do you think that, in our French companies, this battle still makes sense, given the number of women in positions of responsibility in the industry?

Maëva: Absolutely, it makes perfect sense. The world of spirits also affects women, and it’s true that it starts inside the distilleries, behind the bars and ends with those with refined palates. As we had the pleasure of saying on March 8: dèyè chak ronm ni osi on fanm in Creole, “behind every rum there are women”.

Cet article Meeting with Maëva Mécorvin-Flandrina, Maison Bologne est apparu en premier sur Rhum Fest Paris.

Guadeloupe rum, get to the bottom of the bottle

 

Why does a Guadeloupe rum develop this aromatic profile? Let’s go from the bottle to the cane to find out.

Photo d’illustration © Anne Gisselbrecht

Beware, your visits to the nearest specialist wine shop are starting to become very frequent. But I agree with you, there’s so much to discover, you don’t want to waste any time.

But this time, you have an idea in mind. You’ve been wanting to know more about Guadeloupe’s rums for some time now. As a child, you discovered this beautiful island on a family trip, but you were far too young to be interested in the distilleries and their production. Now you want to make up for lost time.

It’s a good thing your cellarman is here, because it’s not always easy to find your way around Guadeloupe’s rums. Thanks to his skilfully distilled advice (a hackneyed pun if ever there was one), you understand the category a little better – or so you think – and you decide to get your hands on a white rum and an aged rum.

Yes, you’ll stop at nothing to better understand the world of rum.

Door closed behind you, shoes tossed into a corner, hands washed (yes, this is important), you take out two tasting glasses (you really must avoid tumblers, sometimes called whisky glasses, not to mention mustard glasses featuring characters from the latest Disney movie), into which you pour a few centilitres of your recent acquisitions.

 

You start to lean into the white and let the old wine breathe. Intense aromas of citrus, herbaceous cane and slightly shy flowers, that’s how it greets you.

 

You’ll immediately recognize the profile of pure cane juice rums. These are almost always mistakenly referred to as rhums agricoles – although in the case of the Guadeloupe rum you’re sniffing, it is indeed a rhum agricole.

The short legislative section that follows is not intended to send you into the arms of Morpheus, so concentrate a little.

Any rum made by fermenting freshly pressed cane juice is not rhum agricole, but all rhum agricole uses cane juice as its raw material.

This is the first condition for a rum to be able to indicate this on its label (in Europe), and the others are as follows:

• It must be produced in Martinique, Guadeloupe, Reunion, French Guiana or Madeira.
• It must not be distilled above 90% alcohol.
• It must have a volatile substance content of at least 225 grams per hectoliter of pure alcohol.

The first two dashes are fairly clear, the third a little less so. Volatile substances (sometimes referred to as congeners or non-alcoholic content/TNA) are the chemical elements that give rum its taste, and the more of them it contains, the more expressive it will be. These include esters. I’ll stop here and let you meditate on this, or take a nap.

 

This white rum from Guadeloupe is just right for you, and you’re already thinking about the ti-punches that will lower the level of your bottle.

 

You then turn to the other glass, which has been holding the old Guadeloupe rum for a few minutes. Nose to nose with an unfamiliar structure, you remain perplexed.

You detect aromas of baked caramel, spices, licorice, leather, orange zest and a hint of menthol. None of this rings a bell, and you’re genuinely surprised to find such a profile in an old agricole. And you should be! This Guadeloupe rum is a molasses rum, in other words, a sugar mill rum or industrial rum.

Your wine merchant has given you a surprise: while Guadeloupe’s agricultural rums are of course available in aged versions, he has directed you towards this one, which, right there in your glass, makes you hesitate.

Guadeloupe has a geographical indication (or GI). In order for a rum produced on the island to bear the label “Rhum de Guadeloupe”, certain production rules must be observed. These are fairly permissive, for example as regards the raw materials used, which can be cane juice or molasses.

 

In fact, you’ll need to look for additional information on the label: “agricultural” or “sugar mill” will tell you exactly that.

 

To complicate things a little (which are already not so simple), there’s also a Guadeloupean tradition of mixing molasses (the non-crystallizable residue of the sugar industry) and cane juice.

You tell yourself that at least, thanks to the glass in front of you, you have an idea of what Guadeloupe molasses rum can be like, and you’re not entirely wrong.

Now all you have to do is discover what LES rhums vieux de l’Île Papillon have to offer, but to do that, you’re going to have to taste a whole bunch of them. And the reason is simple: as the GI specifications are so broad, rum distilleries also have the choice of distillation method.

An iron still (of the Charentais type), a distillation column or even a hybrid still… anything is possible.

 

The result is rums with very different profiles, as can already be seen in the white rums.

 

Of course, the other elements that impact a spirit’s aromas must also be taken into account: duration of fermentation, alcoholic percentage at the alembic’s exit, time spent in cask and type of wood used for this cask, conduction of alcoholic reduction, and so on…

Of course, what might be interpreted as a barrier to understanding what “Guadeloupe rum” means, can also be seen as a formidable playground for producers, and a huge opportunity for you to explore. So, where two old rums from Martinique share many common traits, two old rums from Guadeloupe may be far apart.

It’s up to you to discover them!

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