Saint Aubin
The history of Saint Aubin rum
The Saint Aubin distillery is located in the south ofMauritius, in the Rivière des Anguilles area. It owes its name to the first owner of the estate, established in 1778 by Pierre de Saint Aubin.
The estate began sugar production in 1819, the year that appears on the brand's bottlings. Saint Aubin was a prosperous sugar group. The Guimbeau family (still at the head of the estate) took over in 1898. In 1958, the group extended its activities to tea, then to other local products, as well as tourism.
In 2001, the government anticipated the announced end of the sugar industry in 2009. It liberalized rum production, whether from pure cane juice or molasses. Until then, sugar cane had been entirely reserved for sugar, and only light molasses rum could be distilled, on a highly industrial scale.
It was Patrick Guimbeau, who arrived at the estate in the mid-1990s, who immediately decided to take this new direction. He began construction of the first distillery, which opened in 2003. He thus became a pioneer of pure cane juice rum in Mauritius.
Saint Aubin rum production
The estate farms 750 hectares of sugar cane, the majority of which is red cane. The cane is entirely hand-cut, and grows alongside other vanilla plantations.
Rum is actually produced in Saint Aubin at two different distilleries:
La Maison du Rhum
This is the historic distillery, founded in 2003, which can best be described as a micro-distillery. Fangourin, the pure cane juice known as vesou in the West Indies, is produced here using a small, hand-powered mill.
Fermentation takes place in a single 5,000-liter stainless steel vat. Distillation takes place in the traditional way, in a Hradecky Pacov iron still topped by a small rectification column.
50,000 liters of 70% alcohol rum are produced each year.
The Domaine de Saint Aubin rum distillery
This modern distillery, built in 2011 to replace a sugar refinery closed in 1945, is part of a project called SABIO (Saint Aubin Artisanal and Biological Integrated Operations). Its distillation column enables much higher production (1.5 million liters of 50% alcohol rum each year). It is also accompanied by a sugar factory that produces special Jaggery and Khandasary sugars, well-known in India, for example.
It also produces rum from pure cane juice, fermented in 6 60,000-liter fermentation tanks. The large distillation column comes from a brandy distillery in South Africa.
Within the annual production, 12,000 tonnes of organic cane (grown on 15 hectares) are processed. To comply with specifications, vinasse (distillation residue) is spread on fields as a natural fertilizer. The distillery is also energy self-sufficient, producing biogas from the vinasse and using the bagasse from cane pressing as fuel.
The white rums are reduced with the estate's spring water, and some of them are aged. Saint Aubin boasts an ever-expanding range of casks, including ex-bourbon casks, Limousin oak casks and casks imported from Scotland.
Saint Aubin rums
The range of Saint Aubin rums is divided into 4 parts:
- Classic: light rums infused with coffee or spices, like Classic Vanilla.
- Premium: rums from the distillation column, presented in white or with a few months' ageing, like Premium Gold.
- Extra Premium: rums distilled in pot-stills, from which only the heating core is kept. These are top-quality rums, available in 50% or 40% white Coeur de Chauffe and spiced rums.
- Exceptional cuvées include a superb 10-year-old pot-still, a 15-year-old, and two History Collection cuvées, Isle de France and Mauritius. Read less
