A quixotic quest to Martinique for the Appellation d’Origine Contrôlée spirit made from freshly pressed sugarcane wine  written and produced by WYATT PEABODY / photographs by PEDEN+MUNK

One minute you are casually drinking rum with a few friends at a bar in L.A.—next thing you know, you’re frantically seeking passage to an insanely difficult-to-get-to island in the French West Indies. What happened? You tasted appellation-grade rhum agricole—the purest expression of rum on earth. (And you have to really want to get to Martinique if you live in the U.S. From L.A., the journey requires multiple connections.)

Before you know it, you are driving serpentine two-lane highways, twisting through the serene, verdant countryside flanked by banana plantations, roadside stands and cane—lots of sugarcane—the defining element of Martinique in pursuit of rhum agricole. This is not a quixotic quest for strange and different for its own sake, rather the search for a taste that transcends the marketing ploys of big multinational brands: It is a search for the good stuff.

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