Benoit Albanel © La Compagnie du Rhum

PDP. Was there a particular event that spurred you to drop everything and take a leap of faith to launch your whisky idea?

BA. No, it was a slow burner. At the very start, for example, I worked as a chef and bursar at the French embassy in Jordan. This gave me the opportunity to travel, to explore the country, but also allowed me to express myself through food and drink. I then moved into hotels and restaurants – and all the constraints that come with it. I couldn’t see myself continuing along that path; I wanted my day-to-day to be focused on one product – a passion project if you will – and I wanted to learn more about spirits. I took a course on wines and spirits back in Dijon, which sowed the seeds of a project, in particular the notion of ageing. The ageing stage is tremendously important in terms of the structure and the aromas of the liquid. So, if you focus your attention on this aspect, you’re already more than halfway there.

PDP. It’s clear that the backbone of your project is tropical ageing, which is quite revolutionary, since as far as I know there hasn’t been much experience in this area, and not just in whisky. What drew you towards tropical ageing which is essentially the heart of your concept?

BA. Generally speaking, ageing is linked to three factors: temperature, humidity and the type of barrel you use. You soon realise that by regulating these parameters, you can usher the whisky, rum or even cognac towards an aromatic profile that also changes. And so, by toying around with extremes – like the tropical climate, for example – it’s interesting to see what happens. The advantage of tropical ageing for rums already speaks for itself. Some producers have experimented, for example, with splitting a batch of white rum, then ageing one portion in the tropics and another portion in a continental climate. After three years, the rum aged in the Caribbean was way superior in terms of maturity.

For whisky, there was a previous attempt, slightly less intense since it was aged in a subtropical climate where the winters are cooler. There is actually a rather well-known distillery in Taiwan, Kavalan, which has picked up quite a few medals in this subtropical climate (including the prize for the world’s best single malt, aged for a few years) and shows just how important a factor the climate is for enhancing and determining the quality of its whiskies.

The barrels halls at the Kavalan distillery, in Taiwan © Kavalan Whisky

MDP. Was the Kavalan story ultimately a source of inspiration for you to bring your Aikan concept to fruition?

BA. Yes, it did inspire me. I thought, yep, that works. Another inspiration was Amrut, made in India, aged in quite a warm climate, tropical with a gentle altitude (900 m). You could tell that they also swore to the benefits of ageing in this climate. They spoke about the high evaporation rate with particularly thirsty angels, and different characteristics in the barrel hall in terms of the extraction and oxygenation of their whiskies. So, why not do that by taking things to the extreme, in a climate that is entirely tropical, in the Caribbean, where the conditions are exceptional, you have the breeze from the tradewinds, the sea air, searing temperatures and humidity all year round? I thought it would be interesting. There you have the tropical climate that is really important in terms of the technical aspects and the aromatic structure, and it was exciting to explore this hybridity with rum barrels.


Barrel hall at Habitation La Salle, Martinique © Aikan Whisky

PDP. It’s true that in a tropical climate the alcohol ages more quickly and lots of rum distilleries are now putting great store in tropical ageing. In fact, Luca Gargano, at Vélier, insists on this type of ageing for producing spectacular results fast.

BA. Indeed, the evaporation factor is important. Some say that ageing is two, three or even four times faster. It’s hard to really understand what causes the acceleration, all we know is that something different happens. In concrete terms, we lose four to five times more liquid a year. So, rather than oxygenation, we talk about evaporation and consequently aromatic concentration. By rapidly removing, every year, the water and other elements we don’t want to keep in the eau-de-vie, we achieve a superb concentration of flavours.


La Part des Anges © Delaprod for Aikan Whisky

MDP. So, Benoit, in this tropical climate, you decided on the Martinique terroir when you could have chosen Guadeloupe or Marie-Galante, for instance. What made you opt for this terroir specifically? Was it by accident or design?

BA. Actually, this was part of the journey too. My wife is Venezuelan and grew up on the Caribbean coast, a few kilometres from Aruba, which lies just off the Paraguaná Peninsula, for those who really know their geography [laughs]. I really wanted a passion project for my family too, to take them far away, to set my sights far for this project that was driving us, so we settled on the Caribbean. Since Venezuela wasn’t really an option right now, we had to think of other destinations and I felt Martinique was one of the best. It has everything we could want: wind, sea air, extraordinary distilleries for ageing in freshly drained rum barrels, so Martinique was really a no-brainer. Other locations didn’t offer so many elements all in the same place and then, obviously, it’s part of France so practical for us in terms of doing trade, managing the logistics and the like.

PDP. Of course, and then, as you just said, you can also age your whisky in barrels that once contained rum, and not just any old rum: rums highly regarded all over the world, since Martinique is the only country to have its own AOC quality designation for rum. It makes perfect sense.

BA. Absolutely. That’s why it made total sense. The common language, the superior barrels and the very particular aroma of rhum agricole were all appealing factors. That’s what Aikan enthusiasts appreciate: the aromatic structure of fine rum married with the aromas and flavours of whisky. This creates a product that connects these two worlds in the glass and takes the consumer away to faraway climes in one sip.


Harvesting sugarcane, Martinique © Aikan Whisky



Entre Ecosse et Martinique © Delaprod for Aikan Whisky

MDP. You could say that Aikan combines the masculine and the feminine because everyone loves your whiskies – and we know a thing or two about those!

BA. Women have always drank whisky and we noticed that there are fewer barriers today, not so many stereotypes between the genders. We saw that around a table women and men appreciate spirits and, as you say, Aikan is quite a gourmand whisky, which women and men, whisky lovers who like rum and rum lovers who like whisky all seem to enjoy!

MDP. We’ve come full circle!

PDP. You mentioned that your wife is Venezuelan. Did your own relationship influence the name, since “aikan” means “marriage” and the choice of this moniker emphasises the union between two very different cultures?

BA. You’ve hit the nail on the head. I wanted the product to be coherent. I chose “Aikan” for the name because I deliberately wanted a word from the Arawak language, which is spoken in the Caribbean. The Arawak were a group of American Indian people who arrived in dugouts from Venezuela, so here again we’ve come full circle.

Venezuela supplied the first settlers on the islands, so in fact using this name is also to pay homage to these intrepid travellers who were the first people to inhabit the island. Too, it’s a way to celebrate my family’s Caribbean-European heritage and, on a final note, to highlight the philosophy behind the blend, the hybridity creating a marriage between two worlds, two cultures – European and tropical – and two climates – continental (Scotland) and tropical (Martinique).

This is all part and parcel of the Aikan philosophy: innovation, the blend of talents, team work and, above all, the sense of union, when we can reap the rewards.

MDP. The label on your bottles is especially decorative and you can spot lots of surprising details when you look closely. How did the graphic design process come about?

BA. It was my intention to create a beautiful bottle because you taste with your eyes too, so I wanted to take the time to design something appealing but also meaningful. Not to mention thought-provoking, a world that inspires people to travel, through the label, the name, the details. Initially, I thought about the Jouy Print – featuring little scenes of everyday life – which would have depicted the development of Aikan. And then, rightly or wrongly, the idea evolved and we wanted to show these rather more dense illustrations, that form a kind of jungle. It’s when you peer in that you notice the Caribbean and European details intermingled.

Label preliminary sketch no. 1 © Aikan Whisky

Label preliminary sketch no. 2 © Aikan Whisky

Final illustration © Aikan Whisky


Aikan labels © Aikan Whisky

BA. Also, the logo features an Indian teepee contained within a European royal crown! And there are plenty of other elements that consumers can discover by looking closely at my bottles.


Aikan Whisky logo © Aikan Whisky  

MDP. There are indeed plenty of details to spot, not to mention the famous scene of...

PDP. No, we can’t give everything away! You’ll have to buy the bottle to find the messages hidden in the label as well as, looking through, on the back label. Let’s leave the joy of discovering these surprises to the consumers, which will transport them.

MDP. Absolutely!

PDP. Now, let’s talk about your whiskies, Benoit! Can you tell us about your collection today and what products you offer?

BA. So, presently we have four permanent products. Thus far we’ve released one a year. This year is our fourth on the market. We kicked off with Fine Rhum Barrels, which is aged for three years in Scotland and then two in Martinique.