Situated on the lush green hills on the South Western side of Mauritius is the Chamarel area. Hills filled with sugar cane as far as you can see, clumps of pineapples and coconut trees and colourful hibiscus dot the landscape. Spots of yellow and purple flowers transform the dense green sugar cane fields into a patchwork of colour.
The main focal point in the area is Little Black River Peak, the highest point in Mauritius at 828m above sea level. During my trip to the picture-perfect tropical Island of Mauritius in April, I managed to work in a trip to the Chamarel Rum Distillery.
Visiting Chamarel Rum Distillery
On a beautiful sunny day, we ventured into the hills for some exploring and our first stop was the Chamarel Rum Distillery. The distillery logo represents the surrounding area, with the towering Black River Peak and the slopes of the sugar cane fields.
Established in 2008, Chamarel Rum distillery makes use of red and yellow sugar cane. To ensure the best quality they cultivate their own sugar cane. The cane is harvested by hand.
Yellow sugar cane in Mauritius
The red and yellow sugar cane has different harvesting times that extends from July to December. Unfortunately, I visited during the offseason when they were cleaning and maintaining the equipment and there was no sugar cane coming it, but it allowed me ample time to poke my nose into all the nooks and crannies.
Red sugar cane in Mauritius
The Rum Distilling Process
Our tour started with the history of Chamarel and led us to the beautiful forecourt area. From here he took us through the process from where the sugar cane comes in, get stamped and the sugar cane syrup extracted and filtered. I suspect that in season, this can be a rather loud operation.
We moved on to the distilling area. Chamarel has 2 distilling method with a Barbet type plate column that allows for a continuous process as well as 2 copper pot still units.
From the distilling, we moved to the ageing warehouse. Chamarel mainly uses French Oak to age the rum. In the warehouse, there are a few barrels that have been ageing for over 5 years and a few barrels even close to 10 years – several in a variety of interesting casks. The angel’s share in Mauritius is rather low, only about 2.5% due to the moist mild climate in the hills.
Tasting the Chamarel Rum Releases
And from here we moved to the best part of the visit, the tasting. The range starts with the Chamarel Classic. Other releases include the Chamarel Double Distilled, the Chamarel Gold, Chamarel Spices. The Liqueur range includes a Chamarel Vanilla Liqueur, Mandarin Liqueur as well as Coffee Liqueur and Coconut Liqueur.
The Chamarel Classic is great rum for cocktails and we started with a Ti-Punch, which is a mix of the Classic, some lime slices and raw sugar syrup.
The Chamarel Double Distilled not aged and very smooth due to the double pot still distillation with notes of vanilla, pear and citrus.
Chamarel Gold has been aged for 18 months in oak barrels. The Gold has flavour notes of oak, spices and pepper.
The Chamarel Spices is aged for 18 months and then finished for a further 3 months in oak. This release is infused with various spices including cinnamon, cardamom, star anise and coriander. Delicious as an aperitif.
Next up was the Chamarel Premium Range including the VS, VSOP and XO.
The VS release has been aged for 3 to 4 years in French Oak and has distinct hints of coconut and banana. The VSOP release has been aged for between 4 and 6 years in a combination of French Oak and American oak. It has notes of dried fruits, pepper and cloves.
Lastly, they have the XO, which has been aged between 6 and 8 years in a special combination of French Oak, new French Oak, Ex-Cognac and Ex-Wine.
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The Chamarel Limited Edition Range was something different. I have whisky finished in many different barrels including Rum. At Chamarel they have been finishing rum in various barrels including whisky barrels.
I tasted the Chamarel Single Cask Finish aged for 6 years in French Oak and finished for 1 year in Macallan 10 yo casks. They also have a Sauternes cask finish as well as a Moscatel cask finish. This I just had to add to my collection.
Chamarel Rum Cocktails
We ended the tour with some delicious cocktails. There are many similarities to the whisky distilling process and also many differences. It gave me a new appreciation for rum. Also a better understanding of how rum is made. Also what good quality rum should taste like. This is a spirit I will probably be exploring a bit more in future.
And on that note, we hopped back into our taxi and went on to further explore this beautiful Island. We made a stop at the Chamarel waterfall and the world-famous 7 colours Earth. The rest of the time we spent lounging on the beach, drinking rum cocktails. What more can you ask for in a holiday?
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