Last post on Distilleries. Distillery fatigue has set in finally. Went off on another tight schedule yesterday.
PS: Reviews are smaller likely thanks to the fatigue that has set in, but hoping this will help future travelers
Habitation Clement
Summary: Big estate, large crowds and a ticketed visit through the estate. Visited the boutique and shop to look for rhums and try some. The tasting is complimentary and the lady was very kind to explain stuff to me in English. Private cask, cask strength rhums - especially the Marsala cask was enjoyed.
Distillerie a1710 (Distillerie du Simon)
Summary: My lack of French was a handicap for me at this one. Beautiful estate and probably the smallest estate, hence the price of the rhums was perceived to be higher than other places. Tasting notes to follow later. The one that stood out was the Deliverande (aged blend of Martinique and Guadeloupe rhums) - it was quite something
Distillerie Le Mauny
Summary: Nice location. They’ve a train ride around the distillery (didn’t do it) - which reminded me of something very similar to St Nicholas Abbey in Barbados. Rhum selection at the Boutique shop was limited and the tastings were okay (tried the XO and VSOP), probably had to do with the crowds as well. Didn’t pick up anything from here, as nothing caught my fancy.
PS: Going to attribute limited pictures to fatigue and the crowds here. Nothing bad to say about the place. Will try their rhums at a bar and review later.
Last stop Distillerie Trois Rivières
Summary: I am in general a big fan of their white rhum, I’ve always fancied them in a daq at home. Needless to say I was excited to visit them and it was a lovely visit. Estate is quite pretty. Lots of rhums were tried, the Single Cask 2006 was quite something, preferred it over the 2005. Must say pricing here was weird. Found a 2006 for 126€ in Europe while it was 140 € in the distillery shop. Another gentleman who was at the shop was doing the same comparison as I, which was quite funny. Definitely visit them, picturesque, lovely people and good rhums. I couldn’t ask for more.
And that folks is a wrap on Martinique.
Learnt a lot about rhum, tasted some delicious stuff and had some myths busted. No way would any of this would’ve been possible without the missus supporting my addiction (sounds like an Oscar acceptance speech now 
) and driving me around while I drank copious amounts of rhum. Last 2 days on the island will be spent beach bumming and wondering how to pay the credit card bills for all the rhums that were procured .
Hope this was/is/will be helpful to some of you if/when you decide to travel to Martinique.
PS: Decided against visiting 1 distillery and 1 factory - H.B.S (really up north) and Braud & Quennesson (visitors centre only). No FOMO though 
, this was as much as I could cram in a trip while staying married.
Cheers!
Shridhar
I’ve been interested in these rums for a long time. I’ve often hesitated to offer splits on them. In general, they are well appreciated by the connoisseurs who tell me about them. But like Neisson, the prices are really high. However, I’m wondering whether I won’t be offering some in mid-March when my store organizes its VAT-free week.
I wanted to chime in and say THANK YOU for sharing all of this. We just did a somewhat brief (and seemingly equally exhausting) trip similiar to yours. End of May is a bit quieter as we didn’t run into a lot of tourists anywhere. Agreed with a lot of your findings.
I’ve been to a number of distilleries and wineries around the world, and my takeaway from Martinique was how all of our visits entailed self-guided tours. At J.M I was just walking around the fermentation tanks as an employee was taking readings and samples. Super interesting.
The narrow mountain roads to some of these places was pretty exciting.
Mega pleased to hear this @RumRobot ! Such a lovely place, so many nice people and such incredible rhums😎 - happy to hear you had a great experience.! If you have the time and decide to share some impressions, would love to see some of these through your eyes.
OK. My thoughts/experience in Martinique.
We enjoyed our Martinique adventure. This is the third year that we’ve done a Memorial Day (US holiday) trip to visit a rum location. The first trip was to Barbados with FourSquare and Mount Gay. Last year was Hampden and staying in Negril in Jamaica. This year Martinique.
The inspiration from this trip was inspired by a year-long craving for Rhum Agricole that started while I was taking the WSET Level 3 Spirits course and studying Martinque. I had purchased some Martinique rhums before while in France, but they were all oak matured variations and had started craving the unaged versions. It’s a whole other conversation, but I feel like I only want unaged spirits these days. All I want is Blanco Tequila, Pechuga Mezcal, Mexican unaged rums, Shōchū.
We stayed in Les Trois-Îlets. It’s about a 30 minute drive south of FDF and is somewhat central - although the island is pretty small, so that’s relative.
If you are staying there, I’d recommend a few restaurants: SAM CIELO, L’ANTARES, and Le Kano.
And also please visit the incredible (in all meanings of the word) La Savane Des Esclaves that tells the story of the island.
OK. Rhum. Our plan was one distillery a day. My spouse likes distillery visits but I also know that maybe ALL distillery visits ALL day won’t win many spouse points.
Our first stop was J.M Rhum. Driving on these narrow mountain roads is exciting. Rent the smallest car you can. At J.M they are doing some renovation, so you can not see any stills but otherwise it’s all open.
They have a small shop and of course do tastings. My french is toddler-level (a toddler who also seems to know a lot of french villages and winemaking terms, but a toddler nonetheless) and there was a guy who seemed to be the appointed english speaker which was nice. I’m not a super nerd of all J.M’s expressions, but it seemed like a relatively small selection. I grabbed a bottle of their bio/organic unaged rhum and their small 6-bottle tasting sampler - which included their creole shrubb which is great but I’m not sure I need an entire bottle right now.
Post-J.M we had lunch at Restaurant De La Cascade Ajoupa Bouillon which is nearby and pretty great. Then we spent the afternoon on the beach.
The next distillery was Neisson. On the way to Neisson, we made stops at the museum that documents the Mt. Pele explosion (Musée Volcanologique de Franck Perret) and popped into the Paul Gaugin museum.
Note: if you go to Clement, they will give you free passes to the volcano museum, so in hindsight we should have tweaked the schedule. Alas.
We had a terrific lunch at Le Petibonum before heading to Neisson. Possibly the greatest octopus I’ve ever had?
At Neissom, the have lots of sugarcane to look at and then the standard self-guided tour. All signage was in French so get your google translate app out if you need it.
The tasting room was probably the best one we visited. Super helpful and friendly staff. We tasted a number of rhums.
I’m not sure I was taken with their aged expressions - tasted a few and they reminded me of a comment I once heard from a winemaker: “I want my wines to taste like grapes, not trees”. The oak was overpowering. Maybe my palate.
I have some Neisson already (their organic blanc) so I just picked up some of the small TATANKA bottles.
Note: The staff explained the whole Tatanka bottle theme and we were really confused by and still am. I’m blaming the ol’ language barrier on this. That will be another post: “explain to me who/what/why TATANKA is”.
[UPDATE! Researching Tatanka ]
Oh my. The roads out of Neisson back to the main road: rutted!
We did an early morning at the Rhum Clement estate. I realize that it’s not a working distillery and feels a bit touristy, but it is a great experience. Maybe it was being there early or it being May and not high-season, but it was quiet.
The sculpture garden tour was great. The tour of the former distillery was well put together and included a cut-out of a column still with the bubble caps and all that - kudos for that one (although maybe not for my spouse who maybe didn’t want to fully understand how they work).
This was the perfect tour for rum nerd + spouse who likes history and other stuff.
Their tasting room was very handsome. We didn’t taste a lot - I have a few Clement Rhums already and I’m not sure I’m blown away by their oak matured expressions.
The gift shop was well stocked and included various non-rhum products like a delicious banana spread that we grabbed.
The next day was a Sunday and Mother’s Day on the island. What does that mean? Well, everything seemed closed and the places that were open were packed with fancy dress families and their mothers. Cheers to them! As a sloppy sweaty tourist trying to find lunch it was a challenge.
We wanted to poke around at A1710 but I misread their open times. Ugh. Crud. We did end up at Pam Snack with a view of rocher du Diamant (the Diamond Rock) for lunch. Would recommend. They had a banana gratin that we will try to recreate.
We stopped off at Trois Rivières. So many land crabs!
Did the tour of the former facility which is small and maybe a bit lacking. The tasting room is large and well stocked (including items from their siblings within Campari Group). This was a quick visit but I did develop a taste for their Cuvee de L’Ocean which I know appears to be a polarizing bottle in some groups. Maybe I enjoy the vegetal Paranubes-esque notes.
Afterwards, make a stop in the small village of Anses D’Arlet so you can take the iconic photo of the church from their pier.
Every night at dinner was a Ti’ Punch and in our little rented apartment we had afternoon fruit juices and cracked open various small bottles that we had bought.
Finally…
When flying out, stop by the bar in the parking lot of FDF: Ti plage. We had ham and cheese baguette sandwiches and their rhum punch. Perfect last taste of Martinique.
A quick note about the airport FDF. It’s small and easy to navigate. Their security checkpoint is really well done - they do the automated bins like you have at ATL, JFK, LAX but have a slightly more clever way of doing it.
Also, duty-free is WELL STOCKED. They have all the standard expressions from almost every distillery. If you miss something on your trip, there’s a good chance you can get it at the airport.
many thanks for sharing your travel insights. I love reading these reports as it makes our hobby more tangible.
Thanks for the report, very helpful!
