Rhum JM XO. This here is a fantastic 6+ year aged agricole rhum, produced by the oldest active distillery on the island of Martinique (since 1790!). If you’re completely new to agricole rhums, you might want to first check out this post for more info. In short, “rhum” is just the French word for rum, and agricole describes the particular style of rum production popular in the French-colonized islands. Rhum agricole = French-style rum.

The Rhum JM distillery is located right by the Mt. Pelée volcano, and this unique landscape (“terroir”) influences many elements of the rum. The volcanic soil where the sugarcane is grown, usage of spring water from the volcano, the lower sugar content in the cane variety (thus requiring more sugarcane usage for each batch)…it all makes this rum the joy that it is.

The rums of Martinique are the most famous agricole rums. Compared with agricoles from other countries, there are key distinctions that distinguish AOC agricole rums. AOC agricole rhums are produced by pressing fresh sugarcane to extract the juice, fermenting it for only up to 3 days, then distilling it a single time (in column stills) to 65-75% abv. The short fermentation time helps retain more characteristic flavors of the starting ingredient, and keeping the ABV moderately low helps to further retain the distinct flavor compounds in the sugarcane plant (as opposed to spirits that are distilled to very high % and are basically tasteless).