Initially, the Savanna Estate, located in Saint-Paul (Réunion Island) at the foot of the mountains, became a sugar mill in the early 19th century. The Savanna distillery was established a little later, the result of Emile Hugot's vision between 1948 and 1950. This graduate of the École Centrale des Arts et Manufactures in Paris was an international figure in the sugar industry. From 1982, a contract allowed the Savanna distillery to elevate the quality of its production to the premium rum category, a recognized quality that led it to become the first European distillery to be ISO 9002 certified. This expression, a blend of two highly aromatic rums—one aged in Cognac casks, the other in Port casks, and finished together for a year and a half in a Cognac cask—is the result of a collaboration between the distillery's cellar master, Johnny Landais, and La Maison du Whisky.