Who from Ireland or Scotland deserves the title of birthplace of whisky? Was pisco born in Peru or Chile? And rum in Barbados? The spirit of the place stirs the world of wine and spirits. Throughout France, winegrowers never tire of exploring the richness and diversity of their terroirs. Knowledge and understanding of origins remains the best way to be… original.
Anyone who wants to know Barbados must drag their gaiters into the rum shops, these bars that we find almost everywhere, even in private homes. Customers play dominoes there, enjoy simple but spicy cuisine, while drinking small sips of rum, one of the local passions; the other being Rihanna, a native of a suburb of Georgetown, the capital. An omnipresent star on the island, restaurateurs even proudly show off the table where she would have eaten… one day. The singer unfortunately did not come by the evening of our visit. On the other hand, Stade’s rum, the Barbadian reference, flowed into all the glasses.
Launched on the island and in the United States since 2021, this sugar cane brandy pays homage to George Stade, an engineer who arrived in Barbados in the 19th century after a detour through Trinidad. At a time when rum was mainly sold in bulk, this genius distiller, holder of several patents in the sugar industry, wanted to produce an alcohol rich in flavors and low in impurities. He imagined a revolutionary distillation unit that he built in an idyllic setting, right on the edge of Brighton Beach, north of Bridgetown. The West Indies Rum Distillery (Wird) was born in 1893 and the Stade name quickly became synonymous with excellence among all merchants.
In search of the rare pearl
More than a century later, the company produces 85% of the island’s rum, including Stade’s and Planteray (formerly Plantation). It belongs to a Frenchman, Alexandre Gabriel, who also found a third of National Rums of Jamaica (the Clarendon, Long Pond and Inswood distilleries) in the wedding basket. “I explored the Caribbean and Latin America for a long time before unearthing this rare gem. When I acquired it, in 2017, the Wird was technically efficient, but commercially weak,” he explains. A fault far from being crippling for this adventurer, used to taking on challenges that many of his colleagues would shy away from. How was he able to build his Maison Ferrand group, which today includes the eponymous cognac brand, Citadelle gin and Planteray rum?
A business school student, Alexandre Gabriel financed his studies by representing a few companies, including a cognac company. In 1989, he ended up buying Maison Ferrand, a 100% Grande Champagne cognac. Seven years later, the precursor launched Citadelle, the first French gin. The beginnings were difficult, but Ferran Adrià, the Spanish chef then at the height of his glory, praised him, thus helping to launch the business. Passionate about the cultural history of spirits, Alexandre Gabriel is logically interested in that of rum, whose origins go back to Barbados. The word rum appears for the first time on the island, in 1650, in a document which lists the assets of the Three House Plantation, and the production of sugar cane brandy is said to have begun eight years previously…
Making the oldest still in the world sing again
But, before launching Planteray, Alexandre Gabriel took his first steps in the world of rum in 1999 to sell used cognac barrels. “I then move on to trading by bottling batches from different terroirs such as Jamaica, Trinidad, Guyana or Fiji, always wanting to make my own,” he says. A rum as he likes it “with character, powerful, fragrant and the result of a mixture of modern techniques and ancestral methods”. A visit to his distillery shows that he has succeeded. Of the pot stills, often drawn by his hand, sit alongside columns which distill molasses like pure cane juice. A field of possibilities expanded by the oldest still in the world still in operation, the Rockley!
“Its origins date back to the very end of the 18th century”, estimates Alexandre Gabriel, who discovered it abandoned in the shade of the coconut trees of the Wird before sending it for repairs in the Charente in order to “make it sing again “. Another house signature: double maturation. Planteray rums undergo an initial tropical aging in the Barbadian cellars (7 to 8% angel’s share), before leaving for Cognac by sea for continental aging. Why the boat? “The permanent rolling results in maximum interaction between the wood and the liquid during the crossing,” explains the master distiller. The devil is in the details.
Today comprising around ten permanent references, the Planteray range is regularly enriched with limited editions and an annual series of single casks with audacious aging to say the least (casks of Amaretto, Saint-Estèphe, Umeshu ). Collectors are snapping them up. Alexandre Gabriel also likes to delve into the archives to recreate rums that capture the imagination. Example with one of its latest additions: Mister Fogg Navy Rum, a blend (Barbados, Trinidad, Guyana, Jamaica) which recalls the period (1655-1970) when Royal Navy sailors received a daily ration of “overproof” brandy. That of Planteray has an alcohol content of 55.7%, in the robust tradition of Navy Rum.
Internationally recognized quality
That the quality of Barbadian rum is now internationally recognized constitutes a boon for local agriculture. Both for sugar cane, whose decline seemed inevitable with the crisis in the sugar industry, and for coconuts, another important resource on the island. Local farmers are now supported by Alexandre Gabriel who is committed to buying their harvests to develop his Planteray Cut & Dry, whose recipe based on coconut infused in aged rum is proving to be a great success. A sophistication that proves the rise in quality of Barbados’ flagship nectar.
Antoine Couvreur, who runs Mount Gay, the oldest distillery on the island, founded in 1703, confirms this trend: “Consumers are looking for products with a rich history and provenance. On this point, local rum stands out for its link with the unique terroir of the region and its centuries-old manufacturing traditions. We will continue to push the limits of what an aged rum can give.” Mount Gay provides a glimpse of this with the Single Estate series produced solely from sugarcane harvested from a 324-acre plot in the northernmost parish of Saint Lucy. A taste of paradise. Barbados after all.
> Find our selection of Barbados rums on L’Express.fr