ANTHONY MAY

I was born in England in 1971 and have been living in Mauritius since July 2005. In the UK, I worked for Lloyds TSB Bank for 10 years and then Scottish Widows Insurance as a Senior Business Financial Consultant, based in the City of London. I started my working life with Barclays Mauritius in January 2006, looking after their High Networth Clients and moved to VFS International Ltd in October 2007. I live in Mauritius with my wife, Alexandra, who was born and raised in Mauritius, and our Children, Cassandra and Rufus.


Childhood Passion / Memories….

My childhood memories include fishing with my friends in the Lake District, sitting in the rain for days on end, catching absolutely nothing (age10 to 14). After finding this a bit boring, I started horse riding. My main passion was eventing competitions, galloping across the country side at breakneck speed jumping brick walls, unfortunately with many falls but thankfully not breaking anything…

I also love rugby, having played for 20 years in the UK for a local club in my home town of Nailsea. I now enjoy watching the game and, when an opportunity arises, getting the chance to see the game live either in the UK or in SA.

I decided, aged 16, that I did not want to carry on at school or go to University, so I joined Lloyds TSB Bank in Bristol, England as a clerk. As opposed to learning more at University, I found that the university of life was much more rewarding…

In 1995, I found Bristol too small and decided to move to the bright lights of London where I discovered that I was not driven by day to day banking but by giving financial advice to clients and companies. The Key skill I learnt for this role was being able to listen and finding out what a person’s needs were, then make sure that those needs were met.

In 1998, I met my wife to be, Alexandra who was in London visiting relatives and we met in a crowded night club on the dance floor. When she first said she came from Mauritius, I did not have a clue where this country was but was intrigued to find out more. After spending a year living apart, Alexandra decided to come and live in England to study as a Special Educational Needs teacher , we spent 6 great years in London, enjoying all that it has to offer. We decided to move to Mauritius in 2005 as Alexandra had been offered a full-time post working in one of the International schools to teach children with Specific Learning Difficulties such as Dyslexia. She is now self employed and works with most of the private english-medium schools on the island.

As per true mauritian standards, my house was not completed when we moved here in 2005 but we had the chance to spend 3 months living on the beach, which was a great way to get acclimatised to this wonderful island.

Living in Mauritius revolves around spending time with our daughter, Cassandra and our two labradors, Jessie and Polly, working, socialsing and enjoying the Mauritian Life Style…. I enjoy good food, nice wine, travelling, keeping fit and reading. My favourite time of the week is going to Tamarin Bay on a weekend morning with my wife, daughter and dogs to enjoy the sun, sand and sea and if we are lucky, catching a glimpse of the dolphins in the bay. I try to play golf when I can and prefer to play in the week so that I can keep my weekends free for the family….


Work in Mauritius…..

I started off with Barclays Bank ,where I learnt so much in the 18 months spent there, such as business practice, politics, religions and what really makes Mauritius tick. This gave me an excellent grounding for my present job as Financial Advisor at VFS International as I have greater awareness, knowledge and insight into how I can best help my clients achieve their goals…

I see a lot of expatriates in my job and my advice to anyone looking to come here is: "if you immerse yourself in the mauritian life style you will love it and want to stay for ever.”

RHUMERIE DE CHAMAREL

Nestled in a beautiful valley in the south west of Mauritius, approximately six hundred meters above sea level, lies the seemingly quiescent Rhumerie de Chamarel. With smoke from the chimney rising lackadaisically into the air, the scene would make a perfect setting for a painting by Constable.

But the rhumerie is in fact a bustling hive of activity, as soon becomes evident with a guided tour.

Two years in the concept, development and design stage and one under construction, the rhumerie produces “agricultural” rum from sugar cane juice, rather than “industrial” rum which is made from molasses. Twenty to twenty five tons of cane can be processed per day, producing about twenty five thousand litres of sugar cane juice and five hundred thousand litres of rum annually.

The Rhumerie de Chamarel is distinguished by being one of only a handful of companies in the world to grow its own sugar cane at a single (fifty hectare) location. This has the benefit of helping to ensure a more consistent flavour throughout the season and from year to year and gives the brand a very well defined product.

The manufacture of rum begins with harvesting the sugar cane from the fields and bringing it as quickly as possible to the rhumerie, in order to maintain the quality and quantity of the juice.
Once at the factory, the cane is hand fed onto the levelling machine which feeds it into a machine tenderises the cane by hammering it, this allows more juice to be extracted.

The third machine on the conveyor belt is the mill. This crushes the cane between two rollers, squeezing the juice out and collecting it to be sent onwards for fermentation in vats, each of which can hold twenty thousand litres. Fermentation takes place over the course of thirty six to forty eight hours using organic yeast to accelerate the process of converting the sugar into alcohol. Chilled water is used to regulate the temperature in the vats.

The technical name for the product resulting from fermentation is “wine” – but you wouldn't want to drink it! It has an alcoholic content of four to five percent and must be distilled in order to complete the rum manufacturing process.

The distillation workshop involves two methods of distilling, “double distillation” and “single” or “column” distillation. The former involves placing the wine in a two thousand five hundred litre alembic and heating it to produce vapours which are then collect via condensation; the resulting liquid is about forty five percent alcohol. The process is then repeated in a second identical vessel but the vapours collected this time have a seventy percent alcohol content and the liquid produced is called the “coeur de chauffe”.

Single distillation is a form of fractional distillation and is used to manufacture white rum. The vessel containing the wine is divided by twenty four plates and the condensate collected at each plate has a slightly different colour, texture, flavour and alcohol content compared to the others, resulting in the production of various types of rum.

The final stage in rum manufacture is simply to store the rum in oak barrels for three years to allow osmosis to take place – that is if you want an old rum. For a white rum, it is allowed to “rest” for three months, during which time non-essential alcohol will evaporate and water is added to bring the final solution down to a nicely palatable fifty percent alcohol by volume. “Dark” rum can be produced by ageing the liquid in oak barrels but only for around six months.

I found the whole manufacturing process to be very interesting to say the least, but there is more to Rhumerie de Chamarel than rum production! There is, of course, a shop where you can buy a mind-boggling variety of different rums, as well as some interesting items produced in Mauritius and elsewhere. Their restaurant, L’Alchimiste, is well worth a visit. It can seat eighty people and serves fine organic produce, grown, or raised, on the rhumerie's own estate. This includes food like wild boar, deer, chicken and duck, as well as the usual vegetables.

It might interest you to note that the rhumerie itself can be hired in the evenings for things such as weddings, birthdays or other special occasions. They will cater for twenty to approximately one hundred people and bookings must be made in advance. The Rhumerie de Chamarel is well worth a visit and has the added bonus of being located in a very beautiful part of the country, close to the Seven Coloured Earths. A visit includes rum tasting afterwards (undoubtedly the best I've ever had) so make sure you have a designated driver!