Dillon dark

[Tiare]

I saw they sell Dillon dark very cheap on the net and ґm thinking of buying a bottle because A) I`ve never tried it and B) I try to collect as many of the nicer agricole bottles as possible..(sorry the old St Etienne is gone..I like those colorful labels)
I wonder if anyone have tasted it?
I have heard there should be 2 versions of this rum with 2 different labels.
This is how the bottle look.

[Edward Hamilton]

Thank you for posting this Tiare. This is a very good example where reading the label will explain a lot about the liquid in the bottle.

No where on that bottle does it say rhum agricole. If it did say rhum agricole it would have the AOC mark.

But this rum was not labeled to deceive you, or anyone else. It is what it says it is. Dark Rum.

This particular rum was bottled by Dillon in Martinique and is a caramel-colored spirit which doesn't claim to be rhum agricole. After an expensive marketing study on the US market and why Martinique wasn't selling any rhum agricole in the US, it was concluded that
Americans drink dark rum
Rhum Agricole Vieux was too expensive for the American market.So, Dillon made that rum for the American market, hence the name Dark Rum. It was introduced to the US by Heaven Hill in Kentucky, who realized that it was a mistake after they brought in the original shipment. To my knowledge there was only one shipment made.

That rum is one of the reasons that it took years for American spirits buyers to even look at another bottle of Martinique rum.

According to the people who made it, it isn't very good by the standards of rhum agricole or dark rum. Hence the cheap price today. But, if you're looking for a piece of history you owe it to yourself to put a bottle on your shelf.

The Dillon distillery (http://www.ministryofrum.com/producerdetails.php?t=43) closed in 2005, but not because of this rum.

[Hank Koestner]

Who is making Dillon Rhums now?

[Edward Hamilton]

There is no new Dillon rhum being bottled to my knowledge. The parent company also owns Depaz and some other production but I don't think they are still making Dillon rhum agricole.

[Hank Koestner]

The reason I ask, is this past July, when I was in St. Barths, I purchased a bottle of Dillon Tres Vieux Rhum. The bottle has the AOC, as well as the designation that it was bottled at the distillerie. Could this be the last of the Dillon rhums? Maybe the company that bought them shipped out the last of the rhum that was already bottled. There is no date on the bottle that I could find to indicate when it was bottled.

[Edward Hamilton]

The bottle you have was distilled at the distillery which is now closed. There will be no more rum coming from that distillery, but the label could survive in the future distilled by another distiller but it won't have Mis en bouteille a la Distillerie on the bottle.

[bunnyhugs]

I picked up a bottle of Dillon Blanc (55%) a few weeks back in Laos - where stores can often stock stuff that is years old.

Nowhere does the label say "Mis en bouteille a la Distillerie".

What it does say on the front label is "Distille et Eleve a la Martinique", and "Elabore et eleve par distillerie Dillon Fort de France - Martinique".

Anyone know what that means?

I guessing it means my bottle is not from the original Dillon distillery.

[RonJames]

Ed (or anybody) is it possible to move the still to another distillery? I've heard that they've done that with others like clement.

[Edward Hamilton]

I picked up a bottle of Dillon Blanc (55%) a few weeks back in Laos - where stores can often stock stuff that is years old.

Nowhere does the label say "Mis en bouteille a la Distillerie".

What it does say on the front label is "Distille et Eleve a la Martinique", and "Elabore et eleve par distillerie Dillon Fort de France - Martinique".

Anyone know what that means?

I guessing it means my bottle is not from the original Dillon distillery.

This was made for Dillon Fort de France. 'et eleve' literally means 'and aged' but Dillon Blanc isn't aged so that doesn't make a lot of sense. Does that bottle say Rhum Agricole Martinique or have an AOC mark on it?

The Dillon distillery stopped production about 5 years ago but it is still being produced under contract by another producer. The last time I was there, they hadn't moved the stills.

[Edward Hamilton]

Ed (or anybody) is it possible to move the still to another distillery? I've heard that they've done that with others like clement.

Sure it is possible to move a still. The Duquesne and Trois Riviéres stills were moved to La Mauny in about 2000. Clément stopped production at Habitation Clément in 1989, but the still until a number of years later.

[bunnyhugs]

Does that bottle say Rhum Agricole Martinique or have an AOC mark on it?

Yes.

[Edward Hamilton]

I'm not sure who is making Dillon rhums now, but the parent company does own a couple of distilleries but if the label says AOC or Rhum Agricole Martinique it is distilled in Martinique and is rhum agricole.

Personally, I don't drink a lot of the 55% rhum agricole though there are a couple of them that I do drink on occasion.

[bunnyhugs]

The catalog of the China importer for Rhum Negrita and St. James also lists Depaz and Dillon - though they don't actually import the latter two products. It seems that all those brands are owned by a French group, whose main focus is wine.

So if I was to take a guess I'd say Dillon is probably now made at the same plant as either St. James or Depaz. But if the bottle doesn't say then who knows?

[dreliason]

I was in Mantinique in November and bought a Dillon bottle. As a matter of fact, I just finished the bottle a few days ago. It was better than most, but it was not great. Still, it is sad to know it is gone.