In its 320 years in operation, Barbados’ Mount Gay has explored more or less every possible avenue in the process of making rum. They’ve produced sugar cane spirits both young and old, delicate and bombastic, and explored the full range of flavors that rum is known for. But until now, they’ve never produced a single rum from their own sugar cane, from start to finish. That all changes with the newly announced Mount Gay Single Estate Series, and its first release, 23_01. For the first time, the company has shepherded a product all the way from planting to bottling.
Located in St Lucy, on the northern tip of Barbados, Mount Gay is commonly invoked as the world’s oldest commercial rum distillery. One might imagine that this would mean the company has always grown sugar cane, but this is actually not the case. In reality, the Bajan sugar cane industry, facing a wide array of challenging economic pressures, has long been in decline. Cognizant of this, the distillery stepped into acquire nearby sugar cane fields of the old Mount Gay Estate back in 2015, recreating a fully vertically integrated operation for the first time in centuries. And only now, after 8 patient years of growing, harvesting, fermenting, distilling and aging will rum geeks have a chance to taste the fruits of the company’s labors for the first time.
“The Single Estate Series is as Barbadian as rum could be,” said Master Blender Trudiann Branker in a statement. “Growing Barbadian sugar cane to make Barbadian molasses and bringing every element of the rum production together at our home in St Lucy, the birthplace of rum, was a unique journey. This release is a first for us, the first estate rum we’ll launch at Mount Gay. Like any first, it has been a huge adventure for the whole team. We learned to farm sugar cane, we learned to mill sugar cane. We created Barbadian molasses that, for the first time, was not a byproduct of making sugar, it was the product focus. The Single Estate Series rum speaks to this quality of molasses, and of Barbados rum making.”
Mount Gay Single Estate Series 23_01 is the first release in this series, being made from a blend of rums from the 2016 and 2017 sugar cane harvests. It is a 100% copper pot still rum, aged exclusively in ex-bourbon casks, with Branker favoring simplicity in distillation and aging in order to let the distillate–a reflection of the company’s own terroir, now–shine most clearly. The notably dark bottle is made with 70% recycled glass, while “the gift box is mono-material and uses as little packaging and ink as possible to ensure that it is 100% recyclable.” The final product is bottled at 55% ABV (110 proof), Branker’s preferred strength for the company’s pot still rums, and unsurprisingly after so much work being put into its creation, the company recommends neat drinking for it. A mere 1,200 bottles will launch in the U.S. in Nov. 2023, at an eye-popping MSRP of $400. Such is the cost of running a farm since 2015 in order to finally release this product.
So with that said, let’s taste Mount Gay Single Estate Series 23_01.
On the nose, 23_01 features character that starts out as somewhat familiar to lovers of Mount Gay’s pot still-forward rums, but then steadily moves in a more unique and unusual direction. On first pass, I’m getting slightly funky, overripe fruit, orange citrus, charred oak, milk chocolate and mixed baking spice, evoking Christmas cookies. As it unfolds, this morphs in a more botanical sort of direction–suddenly I’m getting more grassiness that evokes the fresh sugar cane, along with toasted sugar, pear fruit and floral notes. It’s like the nose starts out familiar, and then becomes increasingly verdant, reflecting the terroir of the distillery.
On the palate, this is fairly dry and delightfully funky. I’m getting pineapple and charred oak, along with mocha, mixed spice, grassiness and hints of rubber. The residual sweetness is only mild, while the flavors accent the fresh cane in a way that doesn’t often come through in molasses rums–it drinks almost more like an aged agricole rhum made from fresh sugar cane juice. Over time, like the nose, the palate also becomes increasingly floral and earthy, with a more “fresh” character than you typically find in aged molasses rums. The finish is fascinating, with a distinctly salty/saline note that is reminiscent of licking one’s lips after swimming in the ocean.
All in all, it’s a very interesting and engaging dram, one that easily stands out as unique from the everyday Mount Gay Rum product lineup. It will be fascinating to see how subsequent releases in the Single Estate Series may expound upon or dramatically depart from this initial example, but for now, the likes of Trudiann Branker can rest knowing that the long journey from field to glass has finally been successfully completed.
Distillery: Mount Gay
City: Bridgetown, Barbados
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.