Three Roll Estate

Consider Contraband Gulf Coast Corn Whiskey, which, as its makers describe it, is “small batch, handmade firewater.” It is made by Bayou Terrebonne Distillers in Houma, Louisiana, and can be found at many Rouses Markets locations. The company’s success is a distinctly American success. And it has to be, because Bayou Terrebonne Distillers traces its lineage to Prohibition.

It was during that time that the first Mardi Gras queen of Houma — the owners’ greatgrandmother, Lily Lirette — sought a way to support her family. Thus was born her pastime of making contraband liquor. Oh, the cops knew what she was up to, but nobody stopped her because the hooch she was brewing was too darn good!

In 2017, Noah Lirette, Rodney Lirette and Nick Hebert bought the historic Blum & Bergeron Dried Shrimp packaging plant located in Downtown Houma; they renovated it and dragged out the very same copper pot used by Grandma Lily. In her honor, they created Contraband Whiskey. They also make a barrel-aged bourbon called Good Earth.

The company’s ethos is that “honest joy is distilled from hard work and earned victories,” and when they say they are a local company, they mean that in every sense of the word. For Bayou Terrebonne Distillers, it’s not just local crops. It’s also local people.

“The community means everything to us,” says Noah Lirette, who describes himself as an “owner, operator and janitor” of the distillery. “Bayou Terrebonne means ‘good earth’ in French. The good earth, Terrebonne Parish, our home — its greatest asset is its people. We do everything locally to give back to the community.”

One way it manifests for them is through a nonprofit they formed called the Hache Grant Association, which raises money for local revitalization issues. And a century after Grandma Lily made moonshine on the bayou, her family is still at it. It’s legal now, but they’re still keeping things disreputable — after all, it’s a family tradition!

Whiskey isn’t the only local player on the liquor market, however.

The best rum, as anyone can tell you, is made on small islands or in small towns.

Towns don’t get much smaller than Lacassine, Louisiana, population 57, and home most notably to Louisiana Spirits, makers of the world-famous Bayou Rum.

The secret of Bayou Rum’s craft distillery is its location on the Gulf Coast, in a humid microclimate that fosters a smoother, less “woody” rum than that which you can find in the Caribbean. And Bayou Rum’s master blender & product manager Reineil Vincente, a second-generation rum maker originally from Cuba, sings the praises of the quality sugarcane growing right in his Louisiana backyard.

The secret to Bayou Rum is the “solara method” of rum making, in which barrels are filled with Bayou Rum, placed sideways and stacked into a pyramid, with the oldest rum barrels on the base and the youngest at the apex. “When a batch is created, the bottom barrel is tapped for part of its content to be bottled. Then that bottom barrel is topped off from the next oldest barrel above it, which is filled from the next oldest, and so on,” they explain.

Because Bayou Rum is made by local people with local ingredients, its flavor profile pairs perfectly with such local signature dishes as crawfish, shrimp, jambalaya and andouille.

Today, Bayou Rum is one of the most popular rum brands in the United States, and its products — everything from dark rum and white rum to spiced and premium rums — are sold in liquor stores and bars throughout the country. The brand has won numerous awards for its high quality and unique flavor, and it is considered to be one of the best rums in the world.

In addition to producing high-quality spirits, Bayou Rum is committed to giving back to the community. The company supports local farmers and businesses, and it has created an army of jobs in the Lacassine area. The distillery is passionate about their community and their sugarcane, and they believe that their rum can help to promote the culture and traditions of Louisiana.

“At Bayou Rum, being local means far more than an address,” says Angelo Torre, the company’s manufacturing director. “We intentionally build relationships within our community. A perfect example is the relationship with our molasses supplier, M.A. Patout & Sons.” Located in Jeanerette, Louisiana and founded in 1825, M.A. Patout & Sons is the oldest family-owned manufacturer of cane sugar and molasses in the United States.

“They have been our partner at Bayou Rum since day one. For every bottle of rum that leaves our bottling line, we sustain jobs for sugarcane farmers, cane mill employees, and the truck drivers hauling the cane and molasses.” The Bayou Rum team, says Torre, proudly resides in a three-parish area of Southwest Louisiana and represents the diversity and unique culture of the region.

“With every pour of Bayou Rum, you are experiencing the flavor of Louisiana,” he says.

Another local rum making major waves is distilled and bottled near Baton Rouge, and made at a local sugarcane farm that’s been in the owner’s family for generations. Three Roll Estate — named for the process by which the sugarcane is crushed, running it through three steel rolls — puts out six types of rum, as well as a vodka.

Each alcohol is made a little differently. The company’s premium label is made from sugarcane a mere 90 minutes after its pressing. You can’t get fresher than that. Their Brazilian-style rum is fermented with Brazilian-sourced yeast. The Three Roll Estate white rum, as they describe it, is “unaged, untouched, unadulterated.” Then there is their dark rum, which is aged in French and American oak barrels. My favorite, though, is their Red Stick rum, which is made with cinnamon bark.

In 2020, a readers’ choice poll from USA Today ranked Three Roll Estate as one of the top 10 craft rum distilleries in the country. Meanwhile, in Branch, Louisiana, in the heart of Acadiana and not far from Lafayette, is another local institution.

The story of J.T. Meleck Distillers began in the late 1870s, when John Meleck and his family immigrated to the United States from Germany, settling in South Louisiana. There was a freshwater marsh on the land where they set down roots, and by 1896, Meleck had built a farm and began growing rice there. Fast forward to 2023, and they still do.

“My family has been here for four generations,” Mike Fruge, the owner of J.T. Meleck, said in an interview last year. “I’m always one of those people looking for what’s next.”

He and the J.T. Meleck team were sitting around one day wondering what they could do with their rice crop. The price of rice had plummeted to the point where it was not going to be profitable to plant that year, and like many farmers, they were thinking of ways to add value to it.

“Somebody said, ‘I wonder if you can make vodka with it?’” Fruge recalled. By an amazing coincidence, there happened to be a distillers conference going on right at the same time, and Fruge immediately registered and attended.

“I was as green as you could be,” he said. “I didn’t know a thing about it.”

As it turned out, he learned that no one in the United States made a spirit out of rice — but that was about to change. After extensive experimentation with a local distiller, Fruge and his team got to work learning how they might turn their crop into a premium vodka. They soon found their footing, and thus was born J.T. Meleck Distillers Louisiana Handcrafted Rice Vodka, released in 2018, and Louisiana Handcrafted Rice Whiskey, released late last year.

“It would make our Uncle John proud,” he said, “born right here on our farm, just off Highway 35 in Branch, Louisiana. We’re proud to take our rice from grain to glass. We work the dirt and grow the seed, just like Uncle John did.”

Today they still grow rice, and for that local crop, as well as sugarcane and molasses, you have to raise a glass to local Louisiana farmers; to the spirit of our distillers, and to the spirits they give us.