Rhumb runner - OF SAILORS, PIRATES AND TRADERS

The Rhumb line was the most common way to navigate port to port when rum came of age in the 1700’s, shipping out of Caribbean ports to the American Colonies & Europe. Rhumb Runner pays homage to the sailors, pirates and traders who built it’s history, as well as those today who’ve recognized this great spirit is again rising to it’s glory.

COLLECTOR CASK SERIES - PurE cask to bottle

Our Collector Cask Series is true cask to bottle. No water, additives, coloring or special filtering was used to achieve it’s rich coloring and flavors. 100% of this rum entered a single barrel after distillation and remained in that barrel until bottling, during which time only the Angels were allowed a hand in it’s crafting.

Trinidad Distillers

Trinidad Distillers Limited is the production company under the Angostura Ltd. umbrella. Rum is produced here by Trinidad Distillers Limited, a wholly-owned company of Angostura Holdings that manufactures rum for Angostura Bitters Ltd. and Fernandes Distillers (1973) Ltd. The Fernades family was an important player in Trinidadian rum history. In 1973, Angostura Holdings acquired the assets and name of the Fernandes distillery that had been located across the street. The rums produced for both labels are quite different in style with the Fernandes being the most diverse in the islands.

The Angostura compound with its color-coded, five-column still looks more like a petroleum processing plant than a rum factory. Angostura buys molasses produced in Trinidad, a major sugar-producing country in the region. After the raw material has passed a laboratory inspection, it is pumped to the fermentation vats behind the still. Utilizing their own proprietary yeast, fermentation is accomplished in twenty-four hours. Only distillate from the first and last of the five columns, varying from 75 to 95% alcohol by volume, is collected to be blended and bottled as rum. The combination of light and heavy distillates allows Angostura to blend a variety of different rums.

From the still, rum is stored in stainless steel vessels before being aged, bottled, or shipped in bulk containers to other bottlers around the world. In the buildings just west of the still, thousands of rum-filled, oak barrels are aging in the tropical climate. Some of this aged rum is sold to other distillers and bottlers to be blended on other islands. Angostura uses only charred ex-bourbon barrels for ageing their rums, and rums are charcoal filtered to a degree based on their age. 

During the rum-making process, the fermentation takes an average of 48 hours and the alcohol-content of that brew before actual distillation is 10%. Rum is casked at 70% alcohol content.

DIAMOND DISTILLERY

Established: 1670  ::  Founder: John Carter  ::  Status: Operational

Stills: 9 Different Stills - three English two-column Coffey stills; two French Savalle and three wooden stills: a Port Mount double wooden pot still, a Versailles single wooden pot still and an Enmore wooden Coffey still.

The Diamond Distillery sits on the East Bank of the Demerara River near Georgetown, Guyana. The Distillery, originally attached to the now closed Diamond Sugar Estate, is home to Demerara Distillers Limited (DDL). Although the Diamond Distillery is the last surviving rum distillery in Guyana, the history of rum production in this South American country stretches back as far as the mid-seventeenth century. 

DDL’s old plant contains one of the most famous Coffey stills in the entire world. This is the EHP Wooden Still or Wooden Continuous Coffey. The old plant is home to yet two more wonderful ancient ‘historical’ Stills, called the Single and Double Wooden Pot Stills. The Single Wooden Pot Still (Versailles Still) was originally part of the Versailles Estate on the West Bank of the Demerara River. This wonderful still is over 250 years old, and like the Wooden Continuous Coffey Still it is fully operational, and when called upon manufactures yet another unique marque of rum for the distillery. This pot or ‘vat’ style Still is comprised of a large wooden pot, a large copper alembic and the VSG Rectifier column. The rum produced from these ancient Wooden Pot Stills, unlike the rum produced from the continuous column stills, is created in batches. The final working Still within the old plant is the High Ester Still which I believe is more properly called the ‘John Dore” High Ester Still. 

Superimposed upon the scene of ancient Stills and equipment is the dichotomy of a brand new distillation plant which works side by side with the historic stills. The new distillation plant represents a bridge to DDL’s future of new technology and methods of production. However, by continuing to operate the old plant and maintaining the unique marques of rum upon which the company built its original success, the foundations for that bridge to the future have been set firmly in their historic past.

It was in the late nineteenth century that the rum industry in Guyana began to consolidate. The Sugar Plantations began to close, and many of the distilleries had ceased production. Demerara Distillers recognized that many unique styles of rum could be lost with the closure of distilleries, and began a program to preserve and consolidate the old Stills and equipment at the last surviving estates, eventually at their facility at the Diamond Distillery. By 1999, this process was largely complete, and the Diamond Distillery was able to reproduce many of the original marques of rum from various estates, with many of these marques being produced on the same original Stills as before. This allows Demerara Distillers to create rums with different characteristics and styles including heavy pot stilled to very light rums.