The 4 x 4 plods along the bumpy road in the town of Sainte-Anne bordering the Atlantic Ocean, in the south of Martinique. It runs along high fields of sugar cane which will soon change, through the fermentation of the juice from the stems, into Trois Rivières rum. It is here, near Anse Trabaud, on a plot where the plantations are constantly whipped by the spray, that the brand has developed one of its most sought-after white rums: the Cuvée de l’Océan, sold in a singular bottle, in a monochrome blue. At the tasting, this alcohol with light citrus aromas is marked by its salinity, its iodized side, which gives a little the feeling of drinking the cup… but very gently.
On other lands still being plowed, tractors are followed by elegant processions of egrets, the only ones still moving under the beating sun of this late morning. Between the crops, sometimes very far apart, emerge savannah landscapes, where the grass, rare, pale yellow, almost white, seems to reduce the horizon line to a line of ashes.
At the wheel of the vehicle, Christian Moravie, 53, director of agriculture at Trois Rivières, has been surveying these lands for nearly seventeen years for the Martinican brand, now owned by Campari. But the fields he knew have changed considerably. “For the past ten years, we have seen the effects of climate change, he slips, without taking his eyes off the road. We have recurrent episodes of drought, increasingly close together. »
He stops the vehicle, gets out and squats to put his hand on the ground. The clayey earth has changed into a blackish crust, cracked on all sides. “In some places, there are cracks that are several centimeters wide, he worries. We have more and more canes that dry up and die. The sea is only a few hundred meters away and allows us to develop cuvées with saline notes. One might think that the proximity of the coast helps to moisten the land, but the salinity of the spray also contributes to the drying out of crops. Less water means less yield: we have gone from 45 tonnes to 20 tonnes of cane per hectare on average, which is a huge loss. »
Aged in cognac barrels
Trois Rivières had to solve a complicated equation: to continue to make a profit despite the inevitable reduction in the volume of rum produced each year. The solution ? Position yourself at the top of the range and sell more expensively. Easier said than done. Firstly because the company suffers from an image deficit, compared to more prestigious Martinican houses like Clément or Neisson. “We are sometimes seen as a brand for tourists, the white rum that we buy after a visit to the distillery near the white sand beaches or that we find in supermarkets, concedes the product manager, Johanne Theveney. We had to show our know-how on more noble spirits. »
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