Rivière du Mât

Réunion is a French overseas department in the Indian Ocean east of Madagascar — volcanic, mountainous, with a sugar-cane tradition going back to the 1700s and three working rum distilleries on the island. Rivière du Mât is the largest. It's also French-administered terroir, which means Réunion rums (like Martinique and Guadeloupe) sit inside a regulated framework — not the AOC of Martinique, but a Geographic Indication (IG) that codifies cane variety, distillation method, and traceability.

Production is mostly molasses-based — a "rhum traditionnel" rather than a rhum agricole — distilled in continuous columns and aged in tropical conditions. The house style is softer and more approachable than the high-proof Caribbean houses, with the long Indian Ocean ageing softening the spirit into territory that reads closer to a Demerara than a Marie-Galante. Rivière du Mât bottles a vintage range, single-cask expressions, and the working-strength range under their flagship label.

Caravan represents Rivière du Mât as our Indian Ocean French-rum reference point alongside Arcane (Mauritius) — same ocean, different colonial frameworks, distinct house signatures. Worth pairing on a tasting flight.