91 THE NAVIGATOR | FEATURE Located in the wilder southern reaches of Mauritius, Rhumerie de Saint Aubin traces its heritage back to 1819. With a gracious plantation house – Le Domaine de Saint Aubin – surrounded by lush botanical gardens and vanilla plantations, it is a popular destination for rum-loving travellers to the island. The hills of the estate are also carpeted in waving fields of sugarcane, so little surprise that Saint Aubin is one of the island’s leading producers in crafting premium island rum from pressed sugarcane juice. That fresh juice – extracted only from sugar grown on the estate – is distilled using a small copper pot still, ensuring an extremely high quality of spirit going into barrel. For the commercial market, Saunt Aubin produces a wide-ranging portfolio of rums, from unaged white spirits to rare matured rums, aged in a range of barrels. But as one of the last Mauritian rum distilleries to join the NWW portfolio the selection from Saunt Aubin had to be something of age, and it was finally found after sampling and waiting on maturity for over several years. Matured for three years in an ex-cognac cask and then a further two years in an ex-bourbon barrel, this Saint Aubin single barrel neatly expresses how Mauritian rums can showcase an incredible degree of familiarity, reminding us of another rum distilled not too far to the North but all whilst still maintaining its unique spirit character. Rhumerie de Saint Aubin
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