DISTILLERY

Back in 1986, I was riding my bike in Tahiti and I stumbled across a place called Ava Tea - a small distillery making eau du vie (fruit brandy) from local fruits. They were using small copper pot stills, hand-crushed guava and a little yeast added and naturally fermented.

I knew little about spirit making, but I never forgot how much the natural fruit flavour came out in the spirits. This drink was special!

Bernard Leger was the owner and distiller, this was a two-man operation. I needed a place to stay and offered my help in exchange for room and meals.

Being a chef and making coco vin - we became instant friends. Bernard was the head French diplomat in China, he came to Tahiti to fulfil his dream of making eau du vie. I never thought this would later in life serve me so well.

TAKING VANILLA TO THE WORLD.

One thing led to another and I started a business called Tahitian Import Export (TIE) - exporting Tahitian vanilla beans to the USA, Canada, German, France and Japan. 

We needed alcohol for making vanilla extract, so I obtained my alcohol license. My first still was 20 litres. This wasn’t nearly enough, so I made the jump to 1200 litre pot, then to another bigger pot still until I was able to build my dream!

LESSONS IN SPIRIT MAKING.

I travelled the world learning what I could about making alcohol. Finding a special class on big distillery - how to make rum, vodka, whiskey and bourbon. I was rubbing elbows with the big boys - Bacardi, Jim Beam, Makers Mark and all the big rum distillers from the Caribbean.

One of the assignments was to build a distillery on paper - your dream one!

I worked with engineers from Brazil their knowledge was exceptional and they really were at the forefront of making alcohol.

RUM IS ON THE MENU.

It was small steps though. We grew slowly, starting with rum production. We also enrolled the services of Vitua Richmond, who had been trained as the head distiller for Bacardi.

Vitua had family on the island of Tahaa, so we were able to reach out to local sugar cane farmers, making sure we paid them a top price. Their product has a very high sugar content and a very sweet-smelling juice that is captured in the fermentation, coming out in the rum as a very sweet floral scent and sweet taste on the tip of your tongue.

A NEW DISTILLERY IS BORN.

Five years ago, we had engineers come from Brazil design and build us a new distillery. We had enough production that we could start ageing our rum and we could have a continuous still with copper that captures the sulphites.

This makes our rum very smooth with a sweet floral smell that comes from the sugar cane.

With this still we can have extremely high esters that can even be sour but once sipped, explode with flavour - like having sour then sweet coming through.

Making low esters 150-200 to 1600 plus, gives us huge flexibility to blend and make rums for different markets. Many are new clients now coming to Tahiti so we can make a rum that suits their flavour profiles and market and target price.

WE DISTILL WITH PRIDE.

We are extremely proud of the products we produce from our first-class distillery here in Tahiti. We are proud of the relationships we have built with local suppliers and we are proud to share our creations with the world!