Barbados’ Mount Gay is frequently invoked as the world’s oldest commercial rum distillery, having been founded in 1703, and in the centuries since they’ve done pretty much everything there is to do in the world of sugar cane spirits. With that said, though, it took 320 years for the company to scratch one particular task off its list: Producing a rum entirely from sugar cane (via molasses) grown on their own farm. That they did in last year’s inaugural release of the Mount Gay Single Estate Series (24_01) Rum, the fruit of a process that began when the company first acquired nearby sugar cane fields of the old Mount Gay Estate back in 2015, dreaming of running (at least on a small scale) a fully vertical operation. It took 8 patient years of growing, harvesting, fermenting, distilling and aging rum produced from those fields to end up with the first bottle in the series last year, and now the series is back with its second installment.
Unlike the first iteration, though, this year’s 24_02 batch represents the continuing growth of the distillery’s farm by being made entirely from the sugar cane produced during a single harvest season. The 23_01 batch needed to be made with sugar cane/molasses/rums produced during both the 2016-2017 seasons because the fields planted by Mount Gay had presumably not yet reached full maturity. This is the 2018 harvest, which was large enough to weigh in at 1,695 tons of sugar cane, which became 136 tons of molasses, which became 5,418 bottles of rum at the end of the day. This relatively small, artisanal operation accounts for the eye-popping $400 MSRP, the cost of running a farm for eight years before putting out the first rum it would ever produce.
Sharp-eyed observers will note a few more characters in this year’s Mount Gay Single Estate Series rum, with “Vtd18d2” following the year and batch number. The “Vt18” stands for “Vintage 18,” designating the year of the sugar cane harvest, while the “d2” means that this is a blend of two pot still distillations from that molasses fermentation. Like last year, it’s bottled at a pretty robust 55% ABV (110 proof), this time in a blue label, in a bottle of 70% recycled glass.
So with that said, let’s get to tasting this luxe expression of Mount Gay Single Estate Series rum.
On the nose, this one is boldly fruity and expressive, even in comparison with the first 23_01 batch. Big, bright citrus is a keystone, with notes evocative of orange oil and grapefruit, but there’s also a lot of banana, vanilla cream, milk chocolate and hazelnut. A little allspice puts a baking spice charge into the nose, which is fairly sweet and extremely inviting. The depth of fruitiness here is particularly lovely, working beautifully with the chocolate and spice to set your anticipation.
On the palate, that combination of fruit and spice is both bold and inviting in much the same way. There’s lots of pineapple, banana and citrus, balanced by singed, slightly smoky oak. Banana pudding with vanilla wafers represents the sweeter side, but there’s also slightly overripe fruit and more vinous, prune-like dried fruitiness. This is faintly wild and funky, in a way somewhat similar to last year’s batch, with slight impressions of rubber, damp earth and briny smoke, but these notes are all present in quite a restrained, elegant way. The ethanol is likewise very restrained and gentle for the 110 proof, allowing you to really work out the individual notes on both the nose and the palate. Again, the depth of fruitiness really stands out in a showstopping way.
To be honest, I liked last year’s first release in the Single Estate Series, but this second expression is on another level. The amount of pure flavor and character that Mount Gay has packed into a 5-year age stated rum that isn’t even at full cask strength is absolutely exceptional. This is a joy to drink, and it can’t help but make any rum geek excited for where the distillery’s experiments in sugar cane farming will continue to go from here. At the end of 2024, this will be one of the year’s best rum releases.
Distillery: Mount Gay
City: Bridgetown, Barbados
Style: Pot still molasses-based rum
ABV: 55% (110 proof)
Availability: Limited, 700 ml bottles, $400 MSRP
Jim Vorel is a Paste staff writer and resident beer and liquor geek. You can follow him on Twitter for more drink writing.