Excellence Rum at Saint-James: the genesis of a vintage

2 March 2024 | Discover
Excellence Rum at Saint-James: the genesis of a vintage

Saint-James: The Age of the Distillery

March 2022, the plane lands in Fort-de-France. Members of the Excellence Rhum team join those already on site: the team is complete. A good meal in the evening, ti-punches, and the next day, everyone heads to Sainte-Marie to join the Saint-James site. We are at the feet of the most important, the most imposing distillery of the French Caribbean.

The oenologist and Cellar Master Marc Sassier, also President of the AOC Martinique Rum Syndicate, takes his microphone and leads us into the distillery. Everything is explained to us from the weighing of the cane, the desired brix level (sugar level) per cane, to the distillation, including the crushing, the operation of the impressive furnace, fermentation, tank storage. All this well-tuned machinery is in operation when we visit the site. Noise, jets of steam, mechanical clacking mix with the informed indications of Marc Sassier. The distillery is red, gray, green, rust, black. All these tones are pastel. Workers watch over the whole.

Saint-James Distillery Furnace
Saint-James Distillery Furnace
Saint-James distillery
Saint-James distillery
Columns Still Saint-James
Columns Still Saint-James

Saint-James: The Age of the Cellars

Then comes the age of the cellars where hundreds of thousands of liters of rum are aged. We gaze at the tuns and barrels, stacked up for tens and tens of meters. We also note the presence of bats that keep watch. The first discussions begin over a Saint-James vintage. Things are not straightforward. It's a large operation, with several actors at different levels. We taste several rums. The moment is unique.

The Saint-James Cellars
The Saint-James Cellars
The Saint-James Cellars
The Saint-James Cellars
The Saint-James Cellars
The Saint-James Cellars

The Time for Discussion

Lunchtime arrives. We eat with Marc Sassier at the estate's restaurant. We talk about rum and vintages for Excellence Rhum. Jean-Claude Benoit, the director of the distillery, comes by at that moment. We talk with him as well. But as mentioned before, Saint-James is a large operation, owned by the La Martiniquaise group, based in mainland France.

A year goes by during which exchanges continue, ideas and the project are refined, possibilities are clarified. The deal is struck; it will be a Saint-James Rum, tasted on site in March 2022, cask strength 2006, 15 years, at 53.1% ABV.

Marc Sassier, oenologist and cellar master at Saint-James, presents this vintage: "As for a Saint-James cask strength, according to our process in this matter, it means that it's the same rum that has spent 15 years in the same barrels without topping up and without any intervention all these years. The rum was simply reduced at the beginning to favor the characteristic extraction and bring out with the type of barrel selected, here old Kentucky barrels in American oak."

Marc Sassier continues: "With the use of American oak and the initial cask strength degree, it's choosing an aromatic compromise between the structuring tannins and the aromatic tannins to bring out the characteristics of the initial pouring rum supported by notes due to characteristic aging (roasting, spices...)."

For the Cellar Master, "it is noteworthy that 2006 is a good vintage with good cane growth at the end of the season then optimal harvesting conditions for our rum. It is one of the five best yields of the last years which has produced a smoother rum which will be reflected by its roundness."

You will discover in the mouth toasted wood, then gradually a zest of orange. This rum evolves on aromas of plum, cherry, and walnut. It is an extraordinary vintage to discover at Excellence Rhum.

Distillerie Saint-James
Saint-James distillery
Cuve de fermentation, Saint-James
Fermentation vat, Saint-James
Fermentation vat, Saint-James
Fermentation vat, Saint-James

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Written by

Matthieu Lange
Matthieu Lange
Spirits Advisor