(Image Source: Habitation Velier, LoveLiveTravel)

Habitation Velier has as of late increasingly included newer upstarts to their roster of rums, the likes of Takamaka and Beenleigh. This time it seems that the House of Pure Single Rums will be bottling a white rum from Papa Rouyo Distillery from Guadeloupe's Basse-Terre.

The expression will of course be 100% Pot Still Distillation using 100% Guadeloupe Sugar Cane, which the distillery harvests from nearby Grande-Terre, distilled in 2021 and bottled at 62% ABV with an ester count of 67.9 gr/hlpa.

While the distillery was only launched in 2021, it is named after Charles Albert Ruscade, who was nicknamed "Papa Rouyo", a key figure in bringing sugarcane growing to Guadeloupe's Grande-Terre.  

(Image Source: Spirits Selection)

Papa Rouyo was a sugarcane grower in the late 1910s who fought to buy the land on which he grew sugarcane, a fight that would extend to his daughter Danielle Galli, eventually winning the fight in 1997, after 77 years of perseverance. Since then, Papa Rouyo's grandson, Judes Galli and great-grandson Joris Galli, have partnered with other growers on Le Moule, Grande-Terre, to supply sugarcane to the Papa Rouyo Distillery. 

The distillery, unlike many other neighbouring setups, does not use a Creole column still, rather they purchased two pot stills from a French manufacturer, naming the wash still Agathe, and the spirits still Danielle, after key women in Papa Rouyo's family.

(Image Source: Spirits Selection)

The distillery produced their first rums in February 2021, with the first white rum named "Le Rejeton" to mean "scion" - representing the distillery's management under the scions of Papa Rouyo. In 2022, the distillery produced their first aged rum named "Sanblaj" to mean "blend".

The sugarcane attain a degree of salinity from the ambient sea breezes and stem from the Yellow, Red and Matos varietals, all of which is cut by hand in the morning when temperatures are still cool. The rums are matured in French and American oak barrels after being distilled.

Kanpai!

@111hotpot