In the quiet village of Macouba, located in the North Atlantic province in Martinique and connected to the rest of the island by a single winding road, few people today know the name of Jean-Marie-Martin. Yet this is Upper Garonne, from Villeneuve-de-Riviere in the Comminges, the most famous of the island to which he will give his initials must be one of rums: JM. Recently decorated with a gold medal at the Concours General Agricole in Paris, the JM rum soon celebrate its 170 years of existence. We must go back to 1845 to find the first traces of Commingeois Martinique. Married to Marie Ferment, daughter of a large planter on the island, Jean-Marie Martin made acquisition Housing Fund-Preville to descendant of Antoine Leroux-to-Preville, which had acquired the house at the foot mount Pelee in 1790.

In a candy that takes its carbohydrate operating sugarcane, Jean-Marie Martin decided to transform the house distillery according to the techniques of Father Labat. And if Macouba could count to five distilleries, the Fund-Preville, whence come the JM rum and rum Bellevue, is the last still operating in the village. Today, less than ten distilleries still operating in Martinique. After being bought by various owners as a result of Jean-Marie Martin, who died in 1868 in the village of Saint-Pierre, the distillery JM happen in 1914 in the Crassous de Medeuil family. It is they who give their pedigree at JM rum, and affix their name on the label next to that of Jean-Marie Martin. According Manatous Nazaire, cellar master distiller and distillery where he worked for 40 years, the secret lies in the source water used for making rum “it is a water of exceptional quality that comes directly from Pelee Mountain by the river rock. Very few distilleries still use spring water to make their rum. ” Before welcoming the sugarcane juice mixture and spring water, the barrels used for aging of aged rums are smoked, “is also one of the Rhum JM characteristics that continue to use this technique smoking barrels before aging. ” Between white rum and different aged rums (40% of production), 500 000 liters out of the distillery each year of a farm of 100 hectares of sugar cane. If rum continues to be entirely produced and manufactured locally ( “a rum drinks only his canes”), the home was bought in 2002 by the GBH group that holds the Clement rum. However, it is always the name of Upper Garonne Jean-Marie Martin which sits proudly on the label JM, Martinique and worldwide.