Mount Gay Rum

Written by Brian Donnelly

History

Mount Gay Rum comes from the Caribbean island of Barbados, a country of beautiful green fields, a rugged east coast facing the Atlantic, and a calm west coast facing the Caribbean Sea. Many believe Barbados to be the birthplace of rum, and the country has been at the center point for the spirit’s entire history. Rum is so ingrained in the island’s culture that bars are called rum shops and are a cornerstone of community life.

The hilltop site of the present-day Mount Gay Estate can trace their rum-producing heritage to a legal deed from February 20, 1703, which makes Mount Gay the oldest record of rum distillation in the world. The brand draws its name from Sir John Gay Alleyne, who the Sober family hired in 1784 to be the manager and attorney for the Mount Gilboa estate. He served the area for just over ten years before he passed away in 1801. Alleyne is credited with many improvements to the rum production process, establishing the expertise and tradition of rum production at the estate and in Barbados. The Sober family then renamed the entire site in his honor, but since there was already a Mount Alleyne, they called it Mount Gay.

The Mount Gay estate, which includes the original village and the Oxford Plantation, has had several different owners, which have added to the brand’s legacy and tradition of quality. In 1989, the French spirits company Rémy-Cointreau acquired the majority ownership in Mount Gay Distilleries, Ltd, and the company still owns the brand to this day.

Production

The raw material base for Mount Gay is molasses, which is the category standard for almost all commercial rum. The one major exception is Rhun Agricole, distilled from sugarcane juice, in the French carribean, most notibly the islands of Guadeloupe and Martinique. Molasses is very different than the sugar that you might use to sweeten your coffee or tea. First, the sugar cane plant, which is at the heart of all rum production, is harvested, crushed, and boiled, causing crystallization. Next, the crystalized sugar is separated, leaving behind molasses to be distilled into rum. The Mount Gay Distillery sources molasses from both Barbados and other neighboring Caribbean islands. The local molasses, sourced from Barbados, has a higher sugar content due to the alkaline in the soil, which adds acidity and flavor to the sugarcane, leading to a higher yield in production. The Caribbean molasses contains different minerals from the region, depending on where it was grown. The brand is rigorous on the quality control for their molasses. The combination of the two types gives the distillery a good balance, lower levels of sweetness, and persistent flavor.

Water is a vital ingredient for any spirit because it’s used in almost every step of the production process. Barbados does not have any lakes or rivers, but instead, the island sits on limestone bedrock with porous topsoil. The Mount Gay distillery has a 300-foot deep water well hand dug into a natural cavity in the sloping ground. The pure coral filters the water and carries essential minerals that help produce the right environment for the molasses and yeast during fermentation.

The mixture of molasses and coral filtered water is fermented for around 72 hours using four proprietary yeast strains, depending on the still that will be used, all derived from the natural airborne yeast found around the distillery. The distillery uses two types of fermentation: controlled and open-air using wild indigenous yeast, which adds another layer of flavor.

There are four different types of stills used to make Mount Gay rum, depending on the final flavor profile they wish to achieve. The distillery uses a combination of traditional double column, Spanish and Scottish double retort copper pot, and recently re-commissioned Irish Coffey stills. Each unique distillate will become allow the Master Distiller to create layers of flavor. The shape of our Scottish McMillan pot stills delivers heavier flavored, more palate-clinging rums. The taller, narrower neck Fragasa pot stills will create lighter, fruitier rums. The traditional column still produces fruity, grassy, and butterscotch notes, while the Irish Coffey Still produces herbaceous, grassy, and floral notes. Mount Gay is very transparent about its production process. They do hold onto a few house secrets, though, like their proportion of column still and pot still in each blend.

All maturation is done on the island of Barbados. The tropical climate of high humidity and temperature causes an angel share, or evaporation loss, of 9-11% per year. Scotland only loses around 2-3% each year to the angel's share to put that into perspective. Water evaporation from the aging barrels leads to a loss of volume and increases the proof or alcohol by volume (ABV) of the aging rum. The distillery uses many barrels, including virgin casks or ex-spirit casks like Bourbon, Cognac, Whiskey, Whisky, Madeira, Port, a red wine from Burgundy, Sauternes, and Pedro Ximénez. Please see the individual expressions below to learn the type of barrels used during maturation. All barrels are palletized and matured separately, or static aged, in different kinds of casks at the Mount Gay estate. Unlike many rum producers that use the Solera technique and constantly mix differently aged rums over time. Mount Gay does not use age statements. The rums are aged to taste, and once they're ready, they will become part of a final blend of different rums, ages, and finishes. Like a fine Cognac, the brand achieves complexity and consistency of taste through the process of blending. Mount Gay Rum appointed Trudiann Branker as the new Master Blender in April 2019. She had been working for five years with the previous master blender Allen Smith. The Barbados-born Branker is the first female Master Blender for the House of Mount Gay.

Finally, it's impossible to discuss rum without asking the question about sugar. The Mount Gay brand is very transparent. They do not use added sugar to any of their rums. All distilled spirits, including rum, are virtually sugar-free. Many brands, even premium brands, add sugar, suggesting that aged rums are super sweet. Mount Gay is known for its drier taste profile that is perfect for cocktails or as sipping rum.

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Classic Daiquiri

Ingredients

• 2 oz (60ml) Black Barrel

• ¾oz (22ml) simple syrup

• ¾ oz (22ml) Freshly squeezed lime juice

Directions

• Pour all ingredients into a shaker with ice cubes.

• Shake well.

• Strain in a chilled cocktail glass.

XO Coco Hill

Directions

• Sever 2oz (60ml) of Mount Gay XO over a large ice cube made from coconut water in an old-fashioned glass.

Please Drink Responsibly

© 2021 Mount Gay

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