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Immersion in the heart of aAuthentic family distillery

Visit the Distillerie La Favorite

My Martinique distillery tour today includes a visit to La Favorite in Le Lamentin, renowned for its rums and authenticity. One of the last two family distilleries on the island, La Favorite is deeply attached to its roots, preserving tradition from generation to generation… The only distillery that still runs on steam, just as it did in the early days! The beating heart of the distillery, their 1906 steam engine still hums with each harvest.

A distillery in the heart of Martinique

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Spiritourism allows you to visit Martinique from north to south and east to west. La Favorite is right in the center of the island, just a few minutes from theairport. On the heights of Le Lamentin, I follow the path lined with lush tropical vegetation before discovering, nestled in the green, the factory in full operation. We’re currently in the middle of harvesting season (which will end at the end of July); down below, there’s a palpable, fragrant effervescence – the cane crushing has begun! Here, visitors are free to explore the estate and watch the men and women of La Favorite at work. Explanatory panels are provided to help you find your way around and find out more about rum, the production process, the distillery’s characteristics…

Guided tours

By appointment, and for small groups or professionals, it is possible to book a guided tour. That’s what I did today, with a warm welcome from Emmanuelle and Adrien. Allow 1h30 for the guided tour followed by a tasting.

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A little history...

A steam engine dating from 1906

As we make our way to the footbridge overlooking the factory, Emmanuelle reminds me of the history of the site and of La Favorite rums…

“In 1902, Henri Dormoy lost his farm in Saint-Pierre, which was completely destroyed by the eruption of Montagne Pelée on May 8. In search of new land, he found a sugar distillery founded in 1842 and nearly 600 hectares of plots at Le Lamentin, in the center of the island. He bought it at auction and moved in.

In 1905, he abandoned the sugar business, devoting all the sugar cane to the production of agricultural rum.

He modernized the factory with steam-powered machinery. The same one that’s still running in 2023, the one that arouses so much curiosity!

120 years later, the fourth generation of Dormoys carries on the legacy from father to son. Today, Franck Dormoy, the great-grandson with a passion for rum, runs the distillery.

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Manufacturing

Machines and men...

It’s a good time of year: you can see the workers loading the cut cane and then crushing it. Once on the gangway, I make the most of the view, as close as I can get to the distillation process. The noise and smells transport me into another dimension. The sound of machines, pinions, pistons, conveyors, crushers, all these incessant and perpetual movements: it’s a truly unique experience!

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The atmosphere here is one of intense activity and cohesion. Each member of the team is passionate about his or her job and involved in the brand’s development. La Favorite employs 50 people in season, 20 the rest of the year (outside the production campaign, the machinery requires maintenance!). Gabriel Etienne, one of the cellar masters and production manager, started out 40 years ago with Franck Dormoy’s grandfather, who taught him all about rum…

While the artisanal tradition is perpetuated, it is also accompanied by constantinnovation and improvement, with technical advances in fermentation, better control of processes, and the quest for consistency and perfection!

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Distillation column Distillery La Favorite Lamentin Martinique

Distillation takes place in two distillation columns with different aromatic signatures: a copper column dating from the 1960s, and a copper and stainless steel column with portholes in which the cane wine can be seen bubbling…

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I never tire of looking at this impressive blue steam engine, which since 1906 has been repeating the same steps that give birth to La Favorite rums.

It smokes, it pitches, it smells of cane juice, sugar, fermentation, raw rum… I love it!

Sugar cane cutting

exclusively by hand

I ask Emmanuelle a few questions to find out a little more about the particularities of the rums and their little manufacturing secrets…

– Where do the canes used come from?

“Our sugar cane plots are all around the distillery, right up to the limits of Saint-Joseph. They cover around 85% of our needs, and we buy the rest from small producers in the same area. In addition to the Martinique terroir, the cradle of AOC agricultural rum, there are a number of “micro-terroirs”: the north, the south and the center, of which we are a part and whose soils are recognized as “cane soils”, which retain water and mineral elements. We select the varieties best suited to the soil, the type of mill and the microclimate. We grow several varieties: blue cane, red cane, reed cane, zikak cane, cinnamon cane, among the twenty or so approved for theAOC.

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– How is the cane cut?

“This is one of our special features: the harvest is entirely manual! As with the steam engine, it’s a deliberate choice in our quest for the best possible rum. Even if it’s more time-consuming and tedious, we find many advantages in it… The harvested cane is cleaner, more selective, with less waste. The human eye is superior to the machine: for every 1kg of cane harvested by hand, around 850g is usable, compared with 600g for machine-cut cane. We grow and harvest in the traditional way, without pesticides or fungicides. What’s more, cut cane stays fresher longer, whereas machine-cut sections have to be crushed immediately. “

Tractor Sugar cane La Favorite Lamentin Martinique

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– Can you tell me about distillation and ageing?

“In Martinique we share a common know-how, which is part of the AOC requirements, but we each have our own particularities. In addition to hand-cutting, we opt for a fairly long fermentation time, with small rotations over 3 days, so the rum maturing time also lasts longer. Our white rum for Cuvée des Vacances, for example, will have spent 1 year in vats, before being reduced before bottling. The taste is very different, very fragrant, floral and fruity. Around 10% is put into casks for ageing. For the aged rum, we use French and American oak barrels from the Navarre family cooperage, both new and those that have contained bourbon or cognac, which bring a diversity of aromatic notes.

We bottle on site, and the bottles of our Cuvées Spéciales are always hand-sealed, as tradition dictates! “

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Rhums La Favorite

Tasting and store

After all this emotion and valuable information, Emmanuelle takes me to the building which houses a small exhibition of objects from the past and the tasting and sales area. The bottles have evolved, and I find the new ones very attractive. The labels (made from recycled bagasse) and silk-screen prints bear La Favorite’s new image. Since 2021, a stylized drawing of the smoking distillery has replaced the château’s logo, which no longer belongs to the family. Here, priority is given to white rums with an assertive personality.

Of course, I start by tasting the brand-new vacation cuvée “Tjé Kann”, a selection of white rum from the 2022 harvest. I’m then offered the Cœur de Canne 50°, the house’s best-seller. I end the tasting (in moderation!) with a wood-aged rum from the Exploration series. There’s no doubt about it, La Favorite rums really do have an identity and flavors that can’t be found elsewhere.

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I’m taking a case of Tjé Kann white rum with me as a gift and to accompany vacation parties! I love the bottle, some people even reuse them for water, for punches… NB: At the Concours Général Agricole 2023, the La Favorite distillery won 2 gold medals – for Rhum blanc AOC Cœur de Canne 55% vol. and Rhum blanc AOC Cœur de Canne 50% vol. – as well as a silver medal for its Rhum élevé sous bois AOC Cœur de Canne 45% vol.

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La Flibuste

The success of this emblematic old rum from La Favorite, first bottled in the 1970s, has spread far beyond the island’s borders over the last ten years. Its atypical, gourmand, suave profile, with spicy notes, derived from ancestral methods before AOC, seduces connoisseurs. Named “best rum in the world” by the New York Times, it is bottled in very small quantities(between 3,000 and 6,000 bottles a year). As there isn’t enough to go around, a word of advice: get on the waiting list!

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La Favorite distillery & Les Frères de la Côte

The limited edition Les Frères de la Côte Navigation 2022, cuvée n°1 is an amber rum (aged in wood) with the particularity of having aged part of its production at sea! A white rum 2021, casked on February 3, 2022 at 55% in 6 “Black Scale” barrels from the Navarre cooperage that had contained cognac. This brut de colonne, aged for 8 months in oak casks, covered thousands of nautical miles aboard the Tres Hombres, a motorless brigantine used to transport goods by sail. For this cuvée, La Favorite collaborated with Les Frères de la Côte, who have brought this environmentally-friendly mode of transport up to date. The “dynamic” ageing phase has helped refine the aromatic profile of this rum, to be discovered at the distillery…

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I particularly enjoyed this visit, the old-fashioned charm of this distillery nestled in the vegetation, the hustle and bustle at every stage, and the smiles and friendliness of the team. If you’re looking for authenticity, this is the place to stop. It’s like taking a trip back in time, and you’ll feel the heartbeat of Martinique and the soul of rum…

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