About

Rhum Père Labat is distilled on the island of Marie-Galante, part of Guadeloupe. The distillery, aging facilities, and the estate’s sugarcane fields sit on 1300+ acres. Producing rum since the early 1900s, Père Labat utilizes estate and locally grown sugarcane varieties native to the island. As rhum agricole, these spirits are produced from fresh-pressed sugarcane juice rather than molasses. The distillery is the oldest on the island of Marie-Galante and houses one of of the oldest stills in the Caribbean.

Rhum Père Labat is the brand of rum produced at Distillerie Poisson. A copper pot still from Barbados was installed in 1934, which was replaced in 1955 with one of the first creole column stills. This was followed by another creole column still in the late 70s, modeled after the first. Both have remained in operation. Four kinds of cane are used: red, white, blue, and gray. Some is grown on the estate, some is purchased from local growers. All cane is hand cut and brought to the distillery by ox-drawn carts. 72 hour fermentation yields a vin de canne at 5% abv Distillation takes place in one of two copper creole column stills which have 11 stripping plates and 4 rectifying/enriching plates. The spirit comes off the still between 69% and 71% abv. Rhum blanc is placed in open top wooden foudres for 10-15 days and demineralized water is added to bring it down to proof. On the island, the “local proof” is 59%.