Rum Style

Agricole or de sucrerie — that's what determines the character. Rhum agricole made from sugarcane juice smells of freshly cut cane, grass, florals, and black pepper. Rum made from molasses, called "de sucrerie" under the PGI, is darker and rounder, with notes of caramel, licorice, and burnt sugar crust.

Basse-Terre is agricole country. Bologne, Longueteau, and Reimonenq all distill cane juice rum, each house with its own signature: fast-fermented and grassy at Reimonenq, made from black cane at Bologne, with single-parcel bottlings at Longueteau. Montebello in Petit-Bourg produces white rums with long fermentation and deliberate variety selection. Tasting several side by side reveals just how much range a pure cane juice rum can have.

The flagship style in the bottle is Rhum agricole blanc, unaged, clear, with a minimum of 40 percent alcohol. It tastes vivid and vegetal and takes water well. Its aged counterpart, Rhum élevé sous bois or vieux, turns golden to mahogany in color, smells of vanilla, spice, and dried fruit, yet retains a trace of its cane origins.

Compared to Martinique agricole, which is strictly regulated under AOC, the Guadeloupe PGI allows more latitude, for example in distillation equipment: alongside columns, pot stills with a column attachment are permitted, while the AOC mandates the Creole column. On the label, the word "agricole" may, within the EU, only be used for rum from the French overseas departments and from Madeira.

The differences cannot be read from color alone. A white rum can be aged and filtered; a dark one can be young and colored, since caramel coloring is permitted as an additive. Only the age statement tells you how long the rum spent in the barrel.