While Mount Gay in Barbados often claims the title as the oldest commercial distillery in the world, Saint James may have been one of the first rum brands. The exact history is spotty, but the Saint James website mentions that the brand name was “registered” on the 21st of August, 1882, and Modern Caribbean Rum contains an ad for the original label with the caption “Among the first branded rum bottles, Saint-James, 1885”. Interestingly, it was a ban on the sale of colonial spirits in France that pushed early Martinican rum to be sold to the English speaking North American colonies, and take on the very English sounding name “Saint James”.

While much of the early stuff made it to North America, I found it surprisingly hard to find Saint James in North America in 2024. Their two month old Rhum Paille expression, bottled at 40% ABV, was the only bottle that made it into our big Martinique Rhum lineup. For better or worse, it falls to Rhum Paille to speak for (allegedly) the world’s oldest rum brand.

We measured a density of 0.946g/cc and a refractive index of 1.3548, indicating no additives, and in line with the requirements for the Martinique Rhum Agricole AOC.

The first note that hits the nose is honey; there’s a little bit of chalkiness to it, and bit of apple and vanilla follow that up. On the palate it’s quite thin; it’s 40% ABV definitely isn’t helping here. The apple and honey continue from the nose, and it give a sort of nondescript agricole freshness. The finish is pretty light and short, and lends itself to the fresh, grassy impression left on the palate.

In our blind taste test we thought it was just okay as a neat sipper (6.5/10) but much better mixed into a daiquiri (8.0/10). So how does it do carrying the mantle of Saint James? I was a little bit surprised to see how low it currently scores on RumX (6.0/10 as of writing—though that’s with only 15 reviews, and two outliers that scored under 3) but I understand what it has going against it; it’s bottled at 40% ABV, generally not rum nerds preference, and at 2 months of age, it’s a bit curious why it was put on oak at all. I think it provides a reasonable example of the category, and it doesn’t have any egregious faults. But I also think it’s a bit of a shame it’s made to carry the burden that it does representing the whole Saint James brand in my market.

The Superficial: The bottle is both very standard looking, and also very Saint James. The label is nothing to write home about, but there are a couple of glass details that I find quite nice. The metal screw cap is not winning any awards, but is unsurprising given this expressions place in the market.

Rhum J.M is having a bit of a moment, and that moment probably began with Terroir Volcanique. Announced just before Earth Day in 2023, this three year old rhum agricole showcases the microclimate of the Rhum J.M cane fields, shaded by the looming profile of volcanic Mount Pelée, as well as their on-site cooperage program. The core idea is that they’ve used the level of control they have over their barrels to dial in the toasting and charring to capture something about the place this rum is made.

We measured a density of 0.941g/cc and a refractive index of 1.3554, indicating no additives, and in line with the requirements for the Martinique Rhum Agricole AOC.

On the nose Terroir Volcanique is quite warm: toasted sugars, baked apple, and oaky vanilla stick out. There’s a bit of development on the palate with leather, oak, pepper and smoke leading at the beginning, followed by gentler notes of caramel, cinnamon, and apple pie. The finish is pretty light compared to the palate, and leaves an impression of dried apple peel.

In our blind taste test we thought it was good both as a neat sipper (7.3/10) and as a mixer (7.9/10). All together the rum itself is a tasty, interesting expression, but more than that it’s a great example of why Rhum J.M is scoring a lot of points with rum lovers. At the highest level it’s just cool to see a distillery trying stuff—a trend they’ve kept up by releasing the cocktail focused Épices Créoles, Fumée Volcanique, and Jardin Fruité a short time later. They deserve bonus points that all these new releases can be had for uner $50. But what’s more is what they’re choosing to base their experimentation around. In a market where a lot of head turning releases are either unattainable museum pieces or outright gimmicks (maybe you thought of the phrase “hot sauce cask” before I said it?), J.M is focusing on playing with and highlighting the things that make their juice what it is: sugar cane terroir, and oak cask char.

The Superficial: The cherry on top of all of this is that Terroir Volcanique comes in a really compelling bottle; it’s everything I love about the standard J.M bottle treatment (nice glass shape, neat embossing, endearing typography and illustration) with a few additional touches that really make it stand out. The label has a more textured finish and irregular edges, the glass has a rustic matte finish. The illustration is frankly a work of art, and if J.M released a run of Terroir Volcanique art prints I would definitely order one.

Bottled at 40% ABV after aging for one year, Trois Rivières Ambré Rhum Agricole is the younger of the two expressions we tasted from the La Mauny distillery. At the time of writing Ambré gets only a 6.1/10 on RumX, compared with the Cuvee Du Moulin’s 6.4/10. While neither are stellar numbers, ratings on RumX within a lineup generally correlate with age, so a drop of 0.3 points with a drop of two years of aging is about what you’d expect.

We measured a density of 0.947g/cc and a refractive index of 1.3552, indicating no additives, in line with the requirements for the Martinique Rhum Agricole AOC.

On the nose you get a certain level of dusty funkiness that isn’t super pleasant. Classic agricole grass and apple are there, with a note of caramel that may have played better if it wasn’t fighting against the sort of off muskiness. The palate is pretty thin, and while the apple is joined by some ginger, there’s not much going on. The finish is light and short, continuing most of what was on the nose and palate.

In our blind taste test we thought it was just okay as a neat sipper (6.4/10), but pretty good as a mixer (7.8/10). Overall this rum doesn’t give much, and what it does give isn’t particularly flavorful.

The Superficial: A quality feeling bottle with nice glass details. The matte embossed labels isn’t winning design awards, but looks reasonably nice and feels good. The metal wrap around the top feels substantial and is fun to pull off, and while the natural cork is nice, I wish there was a wooden stopper.