MOUNT GAY RUM

Mount Gay is one of the world’s oldest and most famous rum producers. In 1703 John Sober (a bit of irony there) inherited a small distillery in Barbados at the top of Mount Gilboa. He appointed his good friend Sir John Gay Alleyene as the manager, a man whose innovations and achievements were so successful that when he passed away the Distillery was renamed in his honor.

The original artesian well dug in 1703 is still in use today, supplying the pure Barbadian water from coral caverns deep below. Mount Gay uses hand-selected sugarcane that is refined into molasses, fermented by a blend of natural open-air yeasts and a special heir-loom yeast developed over the centuries. A double distillation from copper pot stills and an ingenious single-distill column still are then married to create the rum. It ages in up to three types of casks before being blended by Trudiann Branker, Mount Gay’s first female Master Blender, who works with the largest stock of old rums in Barbados.

The Eclipse is crisp and aromatic, the embodiment of the Mount Gay style, aged in charred ex-American whiskey casks. Want more richness and complexity? Black Barrel Double Cask Blend is robust and bold from its finishing in heavily charred ex-bourbon barrels. The XO Triple Cask Blend is a beautifully mature rum that introduces cognac barrels to the aging process. Each year the best casks are identified and set aside for at least 10 years, for future blending into one of the world’s finest rums, the 1703 Master Select.

Trudiann Branker

Only four master blenders have held the title over the past 40 years. Today, it’s Trudiann Branker, Mount Gay’s first woman to hold the position. Trudiann graduated from The Siebel Institute and the Institute of Brewing and Distilling, and has more than 11 years’ experience working in the spirits industry. She joined Mount Gay in 2014 as a quality assurance manager and has followed the same path as former master blender Smith. After a five-year apprenticeship with outgoing master blender Allen Smith, Trudiann is more than ready to take on the role of master blender.