TOWT rum imported 100% by sailboat!

TOWT , for TransOceanic Wind Transport, is a French carrier that is a few nautical miles ahead of its time. Paradoxical, you might say, when we talk about sailing transport on old sailing ships. However, as sailors, the crew of TOWT knows the metaphor well: humanity would be the crew of the Titanic heading straight for the iceberg of the end of fossil fuels, at full speed and ignoring all the warnings. Of course, many of us are aware of environmental issues and participate in our own way by promoting ecologically responsible or even organic products. But for example: organic coffee is great, it's better for the environment, therefore for the farmers and ultimately for the consumers. But when this coffee has to cross the Atlantic at full speed on a huge cargo ship that swallows tons and tons of diesel, isn't there something wrong?

This is where TOWT offers a responsible and coherent approach from start to finish, by applying the return to old methods up to the crucial stage of transport. It is then easy to understand that transport by sail, using only the power of wind and men, is a serious path to sustainable development. Beyond that, the notion of crew implies a message of social dimension, against the trend towards automation. The sailing boat is above all a story of men, of cohesion and unconditional solidarity. Finally, sustainable development allows a relearning of the virtues of patience, as opposed to the insatiable need for immediacy that mass consumption provides. Knowing how to be patient also means better understanding the value of things in order to better appreciate them, which is all the more true when it comes to exotic products.

So, is sailing a marketing argument? Yes of course, except that the imagery conveyed is very real here. We have a rum from Marie-Galante (a very rural island where the cane is still transported by ox cart) which crosses the Atlantic Ocean with real sailors on magnificent sailing boats (some photos here) in sometimes hellish conditions.

Let's go back to this rum in more detail: it is an agricultural rum (therefore made from pure fermented cane juice) which has spent 4 years in a foudre, a sort of large oak vat, in the distillery's cellars. This maturation allows the white rum to soften and take on a straw-colored dress.

Before being loaded onto the boat, it was transferred into old Bourbon casks (much smaller than the tuns) that had contained old Cubaney rum from the Dominican Republic. The crew had selected these casks on the island during a planned stopover to buy coffee. The crossing to the port of Douarnenez then lasted 70 days , during which time the rum was subjected to the rolling of the ocean and thus experienced increased contact with the wood. After a resting period, two casks were bottled as single casks at the end of August 2016. The other casks will be bottled little by little, so each single cask will have its own maturity and therefore different characteristics. The time in casks remains relatively short, unless the TOWT team decides to "forget" one for a few years. The rum thus retains its strong and rather young character. Once again, it is the ethical and authentic aspect of the product that prevails, the crew of sailors ultimately being an occasional cellar master and bottler. Transported at an alcohol content of 60%, the rum is reduced to 50% with Breton water from the Monts d'Arrée.

I now offer you a tasting report of the third barrel which was bottled in January 2017, by clicking here .

Nico from the Rhum Attitude team