Jamaica’s Appleton Estate is among the world’s largest rum brands, with roots going back to 1825 or 1749, depending on your perspective. The history of Appleton; its parent company, J. Wray & Nephew (JWN); and JWN’s parent company, Lascelles deMercado, is an extraordinarily complex tapestry. While working on a project related to Jamaican rum, I... Continue Reading →
The learning never stops. For several years I’ve endeavored to understand the flavor science and history behind Jamaican rum’s unique hogo. As part of that I’ve visited every Jamaican rum distillery, save one, and documented what I learned. One such article I wrote was perhaps the first to clearly define what dunder is, and differentiate... Continue Reading →
This story was originally posted here on Cocktail Wonk. However, to resolve certain technical issues, the background information and slide deck have been moved here. I'm leaving this post here for now, so as to not break any links and preserve comments.
In the spirits world, Geographical Indications, or GI for those who are conserving syllables, have recently been in the forefront of many nerdy conversations. This is especially true in the rum community. I’ve written extensively about certain rum-related GIs and have noticed that there’s a lot of confusion about what a GI is—and what it... Continue Reading →
Among Jamaican rum aficionados, two names hold almost mythical allure: Plummer and Wedderburn. They’re known as old, obsolete Jamaican rum marques from a glorious time when all Jamaican rums were chock-full of funky flavors and hogo. The main reason most aficionados know these names today is thanks to Smith & Cross, the gateway Jamaican rum... Continue Reading →
In an ongoing effort to disprove the good-intentioned but flawed “Rum has no rules” sentiment, a number of rum experts have repeatedly and forcefully worked to shoot it down. Specifically, by highlighting actual legal documents defining exactly what the “standard of identity” is for various rum producing countries. In a nutshell, countries can choose to... Continue Reading →
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