Rhum Damoiseau
Inside the only distillery on Grand-Terre
Meet the team behind Grand-Terre’s only distillery
Rhum Damoiseau, the only distillery on the island of Grand-Terre in Guadeloupe, was bought by Roger Damoiseau Sr in 1942. Initially it made sugar products including sweets and jams from the island’s bountiful supply of sugarcane, but it soon moved into rum production.
When Damoiseau’s son Roger Jr took over the company in 1968, he devised a plan to write off some of his father’s debts from starting the business through bulk rum production. With the help of his sons (Roger Sr’s grandchildren) Jean-Luc and Hervé, he built the distillery into the success it is today.
The Damoiseau Distillery now produces a variety of rhums, in accordance with regulations for the Guadeloupe GI (Geographical Indication). These include white and amber rhum, aged rhums including VO, VSOP, XO and ‘millésime’ (vintage), and rhum arrangés, a fruit-infused rum favoured on the French islands in the Caribbean.
Jean-Luc said: “The manufacturing side has grown thanks to everyone who helped me. Without the knowledge and devotion of [former distillery employee] Jacky, I would never have made it this far.”
Unlike the distilleries on neighbouring BasseTerre, Damoiseau has to rely on wind power rather than water to run its grindstones, as Grand-Terre has no rivers. What it does have in its favour, however, is naturally lime-rich soil which makes excellent growing conditions for sugarcane.
During the cane harvests between late
January and early July, fresh cane is delivered to the distillery less than three hours after it is cut from the plant. It is shredded and milled on-site and the juice collected for fermentation, which lasts between 24 and 36 hours. The resulting wine is double distilled through Damoiseau’s three traditional creole column stills – two of which were designed by engineer Pierre Olivier Cogat – with around 2,200 litres of 55% ABV spirit produced from every 30,000 litres of sugarcane juice.
Most of the rhum is then rested in stainless steel tanks for a few months before bottling, while some is aged in ex-Bourbon casks to develop flavour and colour.
For its rhum arrangés, Damoiseau uses fruit hand-picked on Grand-Terre (meaning the spirits can still be labelled as ‘single origin’). This is transported to the warehouse, chopped by staff and added to bottles which are then topped up with rhum at 30% ABV from the main distillery. It gets three months to age in the bottle before it’s ready for sale.
Skylark Spirits, an importer specialising in sugarcane spirits, is responsible for the distribution and promotion of Rhum Damoiseau products in the UK. Its sales director Jaz Anand says, “As with the gin craze, as rum starts to grow in popularity the flavoured/spiced/fruit rums are where the consumer will usually start their journey.
“It seems people are looking for more and more unique flavours in the same way as they would gin, not realising how truly diverse the rum category really is. However, once they start to explore, the wonderful characteristics of the unique style of rum come through and help guide consumers to find rum that suits them.”