Les Rhums Vieux de Marie-Galante
Real treasures that have been sleeping for a long time in the greatest secrecy.
Off the coast of Guadeloupe, on the island of Marie-Galante, known as "the island of 100 windmills", sugar cane has reigned supreme since the middle of the 17th century. It gets its nickname from the numerous windmills or animal-drawn mills built to crush the sugar cane and thus extract the juice, known as "vesou", before it is channelled through channels to the sugar refinery.
The island of Marie-Galante is less well known than Martinique, but it is also a historic terroir for Caribbean rum. In fact, it is on the latter that the Bielle family settled at the end of the 18th century.
Let's take a look back at the history of the Bielle brand, which before becoming a producer of agricultural rums, was a coffee and sugar factory.
The story begins in 1769 when Jean-Pierre Bielle, then a health officer, acquired the property. The farm was then exclusively dedicated to the production of coffee and employed around thirty farmers on his plantation.
When he died in 1812, the farm was taken over by Nicolas, the eldest of the four children he had with his wife. After a few years of exploitation, Nicolas decided to join forces with his brother Maximilien to transform the coffee plantation into a sugar factory. Thus, in 1826, the coffee plants gave way to sugar cane plants. The death of Nicolas led to a difficult succession resulting in a sale by auction to the Espanet family.
In 1868, the property, which then covered 52 hectares, fell into the hands of the family's heir, Fernand Espanet. The latter, in debt, sold the farm to Ernest Bourjac, who took possession of the property in compensation for the debts owed to him. 1923 was to mark history once again with the arrival of Georges Bazile at the helm of the farm. The latter provided a new impetus. The production of the Bielle distillery was then 130 hl of pure alcohol, i.e. 26,000 liters of rum at 50% vol. Some thirty years later, the house and the distillery still have a new owner, Paul Rameaux.
The year 1975 was truly synonymous with the rebirth of the Bielle distillery thanks to the arrival of his little nephew Dominique Thiery. At that time, the distillery was nothing more than a ruin. From Bielle, he only took over the name. Eventually, through inheritances, acquisitions, disposals, the exploitation evolved with its different owners, but all of them kept the name of the founder of the exploitation: Bielle.
This new impetus provided by Dominique Thiery and the reconstruction work he undertook enabled the distillery to increase its production tenfold and thus reach 330,000 liters per year. Today, Bielle perpetuates an old tradition of making agricultural rum with pure cane juice. From the very beginning, the distillery decided to play the quality card by making its rums exclusively from pure sugar cane juice. Nowadays, the production is done with respect for the environment, thanks to the development of a phytoremediation technique for the treatment of the vinasses. The vinasses are placed in a natural basin containing plants that contribute, through evapotranspiration, to the treatment of the residues.
In addition to the "classic" white, old and amber rums in the range, Dominique Thiery undertook in the greatest secrecy the constitution of a real treasure that has been sleeping for a long time: Les Rhums Vieux de Marie-Galante (The Old Rums of Marie-Galante).
It is these rums, from exceptional vintages, that we have chosen to present to you today.
Although the bottling dates appear recent, their birth is much older and took place in complete confidentiality. They are the fruit of the association, in 1989, of the three distillers on the island of Marie-Galante, including Dominique Thiery. At his side, Albert Godefroy from the Habitation Bellevue and Ernest Renault from the Distillerie Poisson (Rhum du Père Labat). The three men decided to join forces in order to maintain an ageing cellar, located on the Père Labat property: the company Les Rhums Vieux de Marie-Galante was born.
This step was taken at a time when consumers had little interest in old rums. As the storage of rum casks was relatively expensive, the three men joined forces to reduce the cost and in the hope that their rums would increase in value. The casks were then supplied by their respective distilleries. Once aged, these rums were again sold to their distillery, including Bielle through the Société d'Exploitation de la Distillerie Bielle (SEDB).
The failure of its two partners to supply white rum led Dominique Thiery to take over the management of the cellar in 1993.
Since that date, the SARL "Les Rhums Vieux de Marie-Galante" has had no other supply than rums from the Bielle distillery and a temporary sharing of breeding with the company Rhum Rhum (from Bielle). This small company, which in the end should never have come out of the shadows, allowed Bielle to protect its interests. Indeed, at the beginning of the 2000s, the rise in popularity of old rums among consumers led Bielle importers and distributors to increase prices to the detriment of the Bielle distillery and gradually to abandon "classic" rums. Only rarities were coveted.
The Bielle distillery, unhappy to see that its old rums were being sold at a golden price by its commercial partners, decided to circumvent the contract which united them, thanks to the company Les Rhums Vieux de Marie-Galante.
The two Rhums Vieux de Marie-Galante that we are presenting to you come from this particular cellar, which contains barrels lost in the memory of time. Both are truly rare, firstly because of the number of bottles produced, 348 for Le Viel Oublié and 1,470 for the Très Vieux Rhum Brut de Fût, but also because of their history that even time will not be able to reproduce. These old rums lost in the memory of time have sacrificed what we can call "La part des Anges", a heavy tribute of 8 to 10% of annual loss due to evaporation in a tropical environment.
Each bottle bears the number of bottles produced as well as the signature of the Cellar Master who pampered these particular rums until they were bottled. Prestigious vintages with inimitable flavours that will take you on a journey. They reveal all the richness and authenticity of their Marie-Galante terroir. An earthly paradise, which gives birth to exceptional rums.
BIELLE DISTILLERY - Les Rhums Vieux de Marie-Galante - Le Viel Oublié - 2001- Bottle of 70 cl
BIELLE DISTILLERY - Les Rhums Vieux de Marie-Galante - Brut de Fût - 2003 - Bottle of 70 cl
RHUM BIELLE - different cuvées and vintages available.
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