It’s never easy for lovers of rhum agricole in the United States. 

Supply of the cane-juice nectar of the French Caribbean has always been scant in America, with just a few brands that have even entered the market in the last decade. 

The two companies with the biggest presence have always been Martinique’s Rhum Clement and Rhum JM, whose entry to the market a little over a decade ago was a very welcome development.

Even so, finding those companies’ most sought after expressions in the U.S. has often been next to impossible.

Rum lovers have always had to make the trip to Martinique, St Maarten (or the Caribbean Rum Awards in St Barth) to even have a chance to find the best bottles. 

There’s one exception, and U.S.-based rum aficionados probably recognize it: it’s the Rhum JM with the leather label, the one that’s always at the corner of the back shelf of the liquor store. 

For those who find it, it’s a collector’s item: the 15-year vintage, almost always the single-best bottle of rhum agricole you can buy off the shelf in the United States, a sought-after expression for one of the island’s most venerable distilleries. 

And now it’s back again, this time from 2003, with an even more beautiful wooden-frame packaging, a new look for what was one of the best JM vintages of the last decade. 

It’s instantly a collector’s item.

So what’s it actually like? 

This 41.8-degree expression has that classic JM amber color, with an aroma of citrus peel, cane stalk, chocolate orange and a hint of herbs. 

The flavor profile is marked by oak, citrus, dried cherries; carambola; apple; tobacco; a whisper of white pepper; all working in exquisite harmony, the concerto that can only be played by a pure cane juice rum. 

The finish is long, luscious and velvety; it just keeps going and going before it softly fades away like a Wild West horizon. 

It’s just astonishingly good; a spectacular expression from a wonderful vintage; the kind that always finds its way to the top shelf of your collection.

And the kind of bottle for which it’s never easy to stay on the shelf.

Rum Journal Review: 97 Points 

— CJ

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An International task force has been established to help respond to the immediate and long-term needs of tourism in Haiti.

The Jamaica-based Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Center will be coordinating the task force, led by Jamaica Tourism Minister Edmund Bartlett.

Earlier in the decade, led by then-Tourism Minister Stephanie Villedrouin, Haiti had seen its strongest tourism growth in decades, with new development and strong arrivals; in recent years, however, that growth stalled.

Now in the wake of the recent earthquake in the country, there’s renewed energy to revive the sector.

“We have to build back the tourism [sector] because that is the sustainable arrangement that will ensure the livelihood for the people,” Bartlett said.

Members of the task force include Adam Stewart, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Sandals Resorts International; Group CEO, JMMB, Keith Duncan; Managing Director for Deals, Southern Cluster for PwC Tax and Advisory Services Limited, Wilfred Baghaloo; Minister of Tourism for Barbados and Chair of the Caribbean Tourism Organization, Senator Lisa Cummings; Minister of Tourism for Saudi Arabia, His Excellency Ahmed Khateeb; and Minister of Tourism and Aviation for The Bahamas, Dionisio James D’Aguilar.

“Minister Bartlett has assembled an incredible team that will come together to use its collective strengths to aid in the recovery efforts in Haiti,” Sandals’ Stewart told Caribbean Journal. “Through the work of our Sandals Foundation, we have long supported efforts on the ground and we look forward to the continued learnings and pragmatic solutions this new task force will bring to the region.”

Also on the task force is Frank Rainieri, founder of Dominican Republic-based Grupo Puntacana, who has previously explored developing projects in Haiti.

Those talks initially focused on development in Haiti’s Cotes-de-Fer area on the southeastern coast of the country.

Rainieri almost single-handedly developed Punta Cana, what is now the most popular tourism destination in the wider Caribbean.

He will be joined by Vice President of the Caribbean Hotel and Tourist Association, Nicola Madden-Grieg; Executive Director of the Global Tourism Resilience and Crisis Management Centre, Professor Llyod Waller

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