
The valley belongs to La Distillerie Rhum J.M, located on the Atlantic side of Mt. Pelée, where ocean breezes nurture estate grown cane and fine rhum is produced. Photo taken March 2013.

Welcome to La Distillerie Rhum J.M - Martinique's smallest distiller uses only sugarcane from it's own estae to make it's magical rhums.

Mechanical cane harvester lops off the unwanted top of the sugarcane stalk while contra-rotating circular blades cut stalks close to the ground where sugar is concentrated. Twin opposing screws pull cane stalks into the chipper, then ejected into the attending dump truck. Watching this machine made my privates hurt.

From cane field to bottle, J.M produces fine rhum using only its own estate grown yellow, red and bleu sugarcane.

Sugarcane cut fresh on J.M's estate is trucked immediately to the distillery for crushing, then fermented within a few hours. This payload will soon be dumped down a chute into the crusher waiting below.

Sugarcane stalks slide down a chute onto a conveyor belt that carries them to an angry looking chopper for the first of three cuts.

Steam engine powers the conveyor and sugarcane crusher. It's hot hard work making the finest rhums agricole.

Cane is crushed to extract the sweet "vesou," then crushed and rinsed with water on these angled conveyors one or more times to extract every bit of sugar. The vesou contains a significant amount of cane pulp, no doubt adding considerably to the aromas and flavors characteristic of Martinique rhums.

Step 1 - Freshly harvested sugarcane stalks are fed into the cutters and crushers. The paddles and rollers work together to force raw cane stalks along the path to becoming sugarcane juice.

Step 2 - Fast rotating cane cutter blades chop the stalks into smaller pieces. The blades need periodic maintenance, sharpening or replacement, ongoing here.

Step 3 - The small bits of sugarcane are crushed between three rollers, grinding them into fibrous slivers.

Step 4 - This conveyor transports slender crushed sugarcane fibers, which are sprayed with water enroute to be crushed again, thus releasing every last drop of sugar from the cane.

Filling a stainless steel fermentation tank with "vesou" (fresh sugarcane juice) after the Belgian Baker's yeast has been put into the tank.

Vesou bubbles violently as the Baker's yeast converts sugar into roughly equal parts alcohol and CO2. Fermentation ususally lasts for two-three days. Sweet foam rises to the top.

Perhaps the airborne yeasts produced by these plants grown upwind in Rhum J.M's opulent garden create a micro-terroir and contribute to the rhum's flavor profile during open top fermentation.

This single-column copper still begins the transformation of fermented sugarcane Vesou into the magic that is Rhum J.M. Photo taken March 2013

The new stands beside the old - a second column still was brought into operation at Rhum J.M's distillery in 2015. Photo taken December 2014.

Rhum J.M has 1700 American oak ex-Bourbon barrels stored in two aging warehouses. Approximately 600 barrels are filled each year.

Rhum aging patiently with only the Angels for company. The blessed ones are thirsty too – consuming an average of 8% each year, and reducng ABV about 1 degree per year.

Sampling the 2003 vintage Rhum J.M, taken straight from the barrel by Managing Director Emmanuel Becheau. The aromas in the aging facility are like perfume to my rhum aficionado colleagues.

Various types of sugarcane are grown and identified with standup plaques on the walkway into Rhum J.M's boutique/tasting room.

J.M's tasting room exhibits the distillery's full line of fine rhum, and attactively presents information to help you discover the aromatic and flavor nuances of their complex rhums. Here we see some of the spices you might detect.
