rhum agricole , or “agricultural rum,” a product of the French West Indies and (to a small extent) the French island of Reunion in the Indian Ocean, is distilled from sugar-cane juice rather than the much more commonly used molasses. See molasses. While some rum was made from sugar-cane juice on sugar plantations in the French Caribbean as early as the seventeenth century, the rhum agricole style itself emerged commercially in the early twentieth century, and its production gained dominance over molasses-based rum in the French Caribbean over the next several decades. See rum.
Like other islands in the Caribbean, the islands of the French Caribbean, including Martinique and Guadeloupe, initially grew sugar cane in the seventeenth century in order to produce and export sugar to Europe. They also made rum from the byproduct of that sugar production, molasses. However, even in those early sugar estate days, there was a distinction made between guildive (the name is a phonetic rendering of the English “kill-devil”), referring to rum made from vesou (sugar-cane juice), and tafia or taffia, made from molasses and skimmings, a distinction that would grow in importance as their rum production evolved. See skimmings. By the nineteenth century, tafia was applied exclusively to unaged molasses distillate, while the aged distillate became rhum—at least, these were the technical terms; as Xavier Rocques pointed out in 1913, “In France, in commerce at the retail level, any spirits from sugar cane or its derivatives are almost always labeled ‘rhum.’ ”
Compared to the rum industries in British colonies such as Barbados and Jamaica, those in the French colonies remained small and technologically backward well into the nineteenth century, due to France’s interest in protecting its extensive wine and brandy industries (something Britain lacked entirely); what sugar-cane distilling occurred was almost entirely for local consumption, although a great deal of molasses was exported.
In the mid-nineteenth century, a confluence of events led to an increase and refinement of French Caribbean rum production. Vineyards in France were ravaged by two blights, which devastated wine production and led the French government to lift duties on French Caribbean rum imports. Over this same period, fermentation and distillation methods also improved, and there was increased use of continuous stills, especially in the large industrial distilleries making rum from molasses and dunder, primarily centered in the town of Saint-Pierre in Martinique. By the end of the century, the French Caribbean had transitioned from being primarily a molasses exporter to being a rum exporter, with a large number of distilleries producing molasses-based “rhum industriel” (also commonly referred to as “rhum traditionnel”). In 1900, Martinique was the largest rum exporter in the world.
rhum agricole or rhum d’habitant (“locals’ rhum,” although that term also encompassed rum made from cane syrup) was “exclusively reserved for local consumption,” even though—as one observer noted in 1903—it was “certainly superior” to the rhum industriel. See cane syrup.In 1902, Martinique’s Mount Pelée volcano erupted, killing over forty thousand residents of Saint-Pierre and destroying the bulk of the large rhum industriel distilleries. This gave smaller distilleries the opportunity to expand their production of rhum agricole to fill the void in rum production, as did the French army’s great demand for rum during World War I. Eventually, French consumers learned to appreciate the once-unfamiliar style; by the 1930s, it was highly prized. In order to protect their wine and brandy production, however, France had implemented import quotas on rum from the islands in the 1920s, and these continued throughout the decades that followed, resulting in the closure of many distilleries in the second half of the century. Just eight distilleries remain today, all but one of them producing rhum agricole, although all now use continuous stills. These survivors are notable for their use of now-antique steam engines to crush the cane and using the residue, or bagasse, to fire their boilers.
In 1996 Martinique received a designation for rhum agricole as an appellation d’origine contrôlée (AOC) product just like champagne and cognac (labeled Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée Martinique Rhum Agricole). To earn this designation, the rhum agricole must be made from the fresh juice of sugar cane and adhere to strict rules of production, some of which are listed here. The cane itself is limited to particular species and volume per hectare and can only be irrigated four months a year to prevent overproduction, and it must be harvested between January and August. The cane juice must only be extracted using grinding or pressing the cane, and must have a minimum sugar content (> 14° Bx) and a minimum pH (> 4.7). Fermentation is restricted to only yeast of the genus Saccharomyces and must not exceed 72 hours or a temperature greater than 38.5° C, and continuous and closed fermentation is prohibited. Distillation is restricted to continuous distillation using a single-column still restricted to particular parameters (heated by vapor injection, using five to nine rectifying plates, using at least fifteen stripping plates that are between 0.7 and 2 meters in diameter, and reflux chauffe-vins or copper water condensers), and no secondary distillation is allowed. The AOC requires bottling at a minimum of 40 percent ABV (50 percent is the customary proof) and designates three aging categories: rhum blanc (rested at least three months after distillation); élevé sous bois, meaning rested under wood (aged a minimum of one year on oak), and rhum vieux (aged a minimum of three years in oak).
Herve, Joseph. “Il y a rhum et rhum comme il y a fagots et fagots.” Revue internationale des produits coloniaux, September 1931, 484–488.
Pairault, E. A. Le rhum et sa fabrication. Paris: Gauthier-Villars, 1902.
Rhum Agricole website. https://www.rhum-agricole.net/site/en/ (accessed April 30, 2021).
Rocques, Xavier. Eaux de vie. Paris: Librairie Polytechnique Ch. Béranger, 1913.
Smith, Frederick H. Caribbean Rum: A Social and Economic History. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2005.
By: Martin Cate and David Wondrich