Guadeloupe Rum

On the main island Damoiseau, Montebello, Bologne, Longueteau and Reimonenq distil rum, and the small island of Marie-Galante adds three agricole distilleries of its own. Damoiseau, in Le Moule on Grande-Terre, holds the largest agricole export quota and is famous for its full-proof bottlings, while Montebello and the old black-cane house Bologne sit on Basse-Terre. Longueteau distils on the Espérance estate in Capesterre-Belle-Eau, including the rum for Karukera, a separate brand, and Reimonenq works in Sainte-Rose in the north of Basse-Terre.

Both: Guadeloupe's protected geographical indication, Rhum de la Guadeloupe, allows rhum agricole from fresh cane juice as well as molasses rum, and in 2019 production was almost exactly half cane juice, half molasses. The indication has been protected in the EU since 2008 at the latest, with its rule book approved in 2015 and revised in 2021. That freedom shapes the island: the range runs from light and grassy to dark and muscular, which makes Guadeloupe the island to explore when Martinique's strict style starts to feel narrow.

Its strength: on Marie-Galante, the small island of a hundred mills off Guadeloupe's south coast, the standard blanc is traditionally bottled at 59 percent. Its three agricole distilleries, Bielle, Bellevue and Poisson (Père Labat), pour some of the most intense agricole anywhere, and the island also has a sugar factory, Grande-Anse. A cult bottle from here is the Rhum Rhum Libération Intégrale from Gianni Capovilla. One warning for collectors: the famous independent "Bellevue 1998" casks, mostly described as molasses rum, do not come from this Bellevue but from Damoiseau's Bellevue distillery in Le Moule on Grande-Terre.