Rum Regions: Barbados
Many rum afficionados consider Barbados rum an ideal introduction to the rum category. It’s enjoyable and “rummy” without veering into the bolder (and let’s face it) more polarizing flavors seen in funky Jamaican rum, grassy rhum agricole, or the wild fermentation-induced flavors of Haitian clairin.
The most popular exported Barbadian rums are typically blends of column and pot distilled distillates. Fans of additive-free rums (except for a bit of caramel for color) will find many choices from the island.
Early History
The small island of Barbados is often cited as the “birthplace of rum,” although some have suggested that Martinique or St. Kitts may have been the site of the first Caribbean rum distillation. If so, it was only by a small handful of years.
Richard Ligon’s book, A True and Exact History of the Island of Barbadoes, is among the earliest texts that describe the early rum-making process. Ligon did not call it rum, but rather, kill-devil, however.
Just 50 years after Ligon left Barbados, there are records of a small estate named Mount Gilboa making rum. When estate manager Sir John Gay Alleyne passed away in 1801, the owning family honored his service by renaming it Mount Gay. Today, the Mount Gay brand proudly proclaims its heritage as the Caribbean’s oldest continuously operating rum distillery.
Barbados saw its first “modern” (non-estate) distillery with the 1893 arrival of the West India Rum Refinery, built by German engineer George Stade. It brought the first continuous column still to the island, which enabled the distillery to outproduce the combined output of all the island’s other distilleries. West Indies was the primary supplier of rum to Barbados brands for a century after it opened. Today, it is known as the West Indies Rum Distillery.
Barbadian Rum Today
Barbados is represented today by four rum distilleries:
Mount Gay has been owned by the French spirit group Rémy Cointreau since 2014. From 1989 to 2013, Rémy Cointreau owned the Mount Gray brand, but not the distillery making the rum; it now owns both. Mount Gay operates double retort pot stills, a twin-column “Coffey” still, and a modern multicolumn still.
West Indies Rum Distillery has been owned by the French spirit group Maison Ferrand since 2017. Previously best known for supplying light rum to the Malibu brand, the distillery now places more emphasis on making batch-distilled rum in revived or new pot stills while still operating two column stills. West Indies has also started laying down a substantial amount of aging stock.
Foursquare Rum Distillery is owned by the Seale family, longtime Barbados citizens. From the early 1900s, R.L. Seale & Co. purchased and aged rum to sell under its brand name. In the mid-1990s, Sir David Seale purchased the shuttered Foursquare sugar factory and converted it into a modern rum distillery to ensure a consistent rum supply. David’s son Richard is now Foursquare’s master distiller and master blender. The distillery operates two double-retort pot stills and a column still.
St. Nicholas Abbey is Barbados’ newest and smallest distillery. Preservation Architect Larry Warren purchased the estate circa 2006 and restored it as a historic site visitor attraction. He plated sugarcane on the estate’s land and rehabilitated a small sugar mill. St. Nicholas Abbey performed its first distillation in 2013 using a small pot still with a rectification column, dubbed “Annabelle.” The fermentation source material is cane syrup made from the estate’s sugarcane.
West Indies Rum Distillery is reported to make over 80 percent of Barbados’ rum, while St. Nicholas Abbey makes less than one percent. Mount Gay and Foursquare distill the remaining percentage in roughly equal proportions. The latter two also hold the largest share of aging stock at the moment.