Plantation Rum

Written by Brian Donnelly, CSS, WSET III

Overview

It is impossible to talk about Plantation Rum or Alexandre Gabriel, the brand's founder and Master Blender, without first discussing his parent company Maison Ferrand, and their flagship brand Ferrand Cognac. Now I will cover Ferrand Cognac and its sister product Citadelle Gin in more detail in a later article. But many of the unique touches that Alexandre brings to Plantation Rum come directly from the Cognac world and the two decades he has spent as a certified Cognac master blender. 

In the 1990s, Maison Ferrand was almost entirely broke, probably still waiting on Citadelle Gin to be approved by the French A.O.C. Alexandre got the idea of selling his barrels seasoned Grande Champagne Cognac worth three times the price of Ex-Bourbon barrels. Each barrel still holds a small portion of the previous spirit that was aged inside, so these barrels would be pretty valuable to the next producer that used them. The only problem was that there was a surplus of barrels in Cognac, and Alexandre had to look elsewhere to sell these barrels. He decided to sell these barrels to a rum producer in the Caribbean, and it was through that experience, he discovered his love of rum. Alexandre was fascinated by how the diversity of culture could translate into a diversity of rum taste.

He did not want to be a "buy it and bottle it" brand. Instead, Alexandre wished to add his unique touch to the category. So he started experimenting with sourcing bulk rum, then aging it back in France in his Ferrand Cognac casks. By the early 2000s, he launched his new rum brand, Plantation, first with just vintage expressions, then eventually with a full line-up of permanent labels with a complete family of brands sourced from many different countries. 

In 2017, Alexandre was able to purchase the West Indies Rum Distillery on the west coast of Barbados near Bridgetown, which also gave the company a 1/3 interest in National Rum of Jamaica, which includes two operating Jamaican distilleries: The Long Pond Rum Distillery in Clark's Town on the north coast, and Clarendon Distillers Limited in Lionel Town on the south coast. The brand will continue to source from their many different contract distilleries and continue their unique process of first Tropical Aging, in the rum's birth country, then Continental Aging at their Cognac House in France. The ownership stake in the West Indies Rum Distillery and National Rum of Jamaica will ensure the brand will keep with the increasing popularity and rising demand for their products.

In 2012, Alexandre Gabriel was named Best Master Blender of Rum in the World (Golden Barrel Award –London). In 2017, the American Distilling Institute honored him as Man of the Year.

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Sweetening & Dosage

I want to cover one last subject before talking about the individual expressions, Dosage, or how this brand applies a standard practice from Cognac production to rum. A large portion of the Rum Industry doesn't offer the level of production transparency that Plantation Rum offers. This is especially true when it comes to added sugar. As a result, many of the Plantation Rum expressions receive a dose of Dosage. This method is not simply adding regular white table sugar, but instead is a complicated process to Dosage, not as a sweetener, but rather as a flavor enhancer. 

1. Unrefined brown sugar is toasted.

2. That toasted sugar is then blended with a base spirit; in this case, that base spirit is rum. 

3. The blend of toasted sugar and rum is aged for a year in Ferrand Cognac barrels until it becomes a rich and complex syrup. 

Maison Ferrand's process of Dosage is like the "salt effect." When you're cooking, you don't add salt to make your food salty; you add salt to bring out flavors already present in the other ingredients. I will go through the specific Dosage level for each expression in terms of grams per liter (g/L). 

Distillation

Plantation has built its brand and reputation as one of the top buyers of sourced rum in the industry. The brand’s parent company, Maison Ferrand, made a monumental shift in that business model in 2017 when they purchased the West Indies Rum Distillery (WIRD) on the west coast of Barbados near Bridgetown, and a one-third interest of National Rum of Jamaica (NRJ). National Rum of Jamaica is a governmental organization designed to support local distilleries in need of financial support. The organization owns two operating distilleries in Jamaica, the Long Pond Rum Distillery in Clark’s Town on the north coast, and the Clarendon Distillers Limited in Lionel Town on the south coast. Plantation rum will continue to source from their many different contract distilleries and continue their continental aging at their Cognac House in France. The ownership stake in the West Indies Rum Distillery and National Rum of Jamaica will ensure the brand will keep with the increasing popularity and rising demand for their products.

Finally Thoughts

Alexandre Gabriel and the Plantation brand gives the mainstream market access to incredible rum. Each expression is fantastic in its unique way, and I believe that any spirits drinker can find an expression that fits their desired flavor profile. As a rising tide lifts all boats, the Plantation brand lifts the entire rum category and gives customers a new taste of what rum can and should be.

Plantation 3 Star

The Plantation 3 Star is a multi-country blend sourced from the "3 shining stars" of the Caribbean rum world: Barbados, Trinidad, & Jamaica. At first glance, this rum appears to be a basic silver rum, but it is not a neutral silver rum. Instead of creating depth of taste and complexity through blending different barrels and different ages, Alexandre has created layering by combining three distinct terroirs and three different styles of rum. Most importantly. The final blend has a perfect integration of taste with all the blended elements.

Plantation Pineapple Stiggins’ Fancy

This rum is fascinating because it was never designed to be a permanent expression. This label is named for the hypocritical Reverend Stiggins, from the "The Pickwick Papers" by Charles Dickens. Reverend Stiggins was always preaching temperance and the evils of alcohol while secretly indulging (pulling) in nips of pineapple rum, which was quite the delicacy in Victorian times. David Wondrich, an author and well-known cocktail historian, was instrumental in collaborating with Alexandre Gabriel on Ferrand Dry Curaçao and the Ferrand 1840 Cognac. He was reading the "Pickwick Papers" and challenged Alexandre to recreate this Victorian-era pineapple rum. So Alexandre made a barrel of this rum and decided to bring his pineapple rum to the 2014 Tales of the Cocktail. If you're unfamiliar with T.O.T.C., it is a massive gathering of cocktail and spirit industry professionals every year in New Orleans. Well, the unsung heroes of this event are called the C.A.P.s, or Cocktail Apprentice Program. These are volunteer bartenders from all over the world and do all the behind-the-scenes things like batching cocktails, juicing citrus, making syrups, etc. It's a lot of thankless work, but it's a badge of honor to work as a C.A.P. Alexandre gave the contents of this barrel of rum he had created to the C.A.P.s, who, of course, shared it with their friends. Finally, demand grew so viral for this product that Maison Ferrand decided to make it a permanent expression. Now, you shouldn't have any issues finding a bottle at your local liquor store or bar, but for years after Tales of the Cocktail, it was very difficult to get your hands on this product. Let me explain how this product is made. After all, it's not like any other flavored rum that's available. Victoria pineapple barks are infused in Plantation 3 Star, then distilled, which gives the pineapple an explosive flavor. Next, the flesh of the pineapple is infused in Plantation Original Dark, blended with the 3 Star-Pineapple distillate, then aged in Ferrand Cognac casks.

Plantation O.F.T.D.

The Plantation O.F.T.D. was another collaboration between Alexandre Gabriel, the cocktail historian David Wondrich, along five prominent Tiki bar owners. Alexandre brought everyone to France to craft the ultimate Tiki rum. They sampled blend after blend of rum, and finally, when the group tasted the perfect combination of rum from Barbados, Jamaica, and Guyana, David Wondrich stood up. He exclaimed, "Oh fuck, that's delicious!" or O.F.T.D. Unfortunately, the T.T.B. requires that all labels define any acronyms, so the brand described O.F.T.D. as Old Fashioned Traditional Dark. I don't know how Old Fashioned or traditional it is, but it is certainly dark, extremely versatile, and delicious.

Plantation Xaymaca Special Dry

Alexandre Gabriel and his company Maison Ferrand purchased The West Indies Rum Distillery in 2017. This purchase also gave him a 1/3 interest in National Rum of Jamaica, which includes two Jamaican distilleries. The Long Pond Distillery is in Clark's Town on the North Coast, and the Clarendon Distillery is in Lionel Town on the South Coast. The Plantation Xaymaca Special Dry is the first Jamaican exclusive permanent expression in the brand's lineup. Xaymaca means "The Land of Wood and Water" in the language of the ingenious people who lived in present-day Jamaica before colonization.

When rum drinkers think of Jamaican rum, they probably think about rums with a lot of Hogo, or that memorable high-ester Jamaican rum funk, caused by unique production processes like reusing dunder, muck pits, and extended wild fermentation, etc. I will cover the unique rum culture and production process of Jamaica in a future video.

Plantation Xaymaca uses low and high-ester rum, which averages out as a Plummer rum in the Jamaican rum classification. High-ester rum is a lot like baking cocoa. It is not very enjoyable on its own, but it's incredible when combined with other ingredients. The Xaymaca is funkier than Appletown but way less funky than Rum Fire or Smith & Cross.

Plantation Isle of Fiji

Sugar Cane is indigenous to Southeast Asia and Oceania, not the Caribbean, so it is super interesting to experience a Plantation rum expression distilled from the original Fiji sugar cane.

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