Mount Gay Distilleries Ltd, St. Michael
Rum labels
My bottles full of rum
| Related links: |
Mount Gay Distilleries Ltd Mount Gay Distilleries Ltd |
History
Many people believe that rum was being produced on the Mount Gay Rum Estate from as early as 1663. However, the first surviving written evidence of this is a legal deed dated 20th February 1703. This document lists the property and the equipment found on it, equipment essential for the manufacture of rum.
"Two stone windmills... one boiling house with seven coppers, one curing house and one still house."
This confirms that rum production was well underway by 1703, making Mount Gay Rum the oldest rum in Barbados, and more importantly, the world.
The Early Years
The Mount Gay Rum Estate lies on a ridge in the northernmost parish of Barbados (St. Lucy). In the 1600's this spot was known as Mount Gilboa and was divided into several small, separately owned sugar plantations. They were named after their respective owners: Tyrell, Jemmott, Jones, Pickering and Grey.
Then, in the early 18th century, William Sandiford bought most of the land, consolidating it into a 280 acre plantation he renamed Mount Gilboa. It was passed on to his son, who sold it in 1747 to John Sober.
Sober and his son Cumberbatch were both absentee landlords, spending most of their time in England. By 1787, Cumberbatch needed someone to manage the affairs of the flourishing Mount Gilboa estate. He chose his good friend, Sir John Gay Alleyne.
In 1801, after Sir John's death, Cumberbatch honored his friend by renaming the plantation Mount Gay Rum (a Mount Alleyne already existed at the time). The Sober family continued to run the property until 1860.
The Dawn of the Modern Era
The next major influence on the Mount Gay Rum Plantation was Aubrey Ward, a prominent businessman who bought the estate outright in the early 1900's. He introduced new methods to meet the increasing demand for Mount Gay Rum, while strictly maintaining its traditional character.
Along with his business partner and marketing specialist John Hutson, he introduced Mount Gay Rum to the international market. These efforts were continued by his son Mr. Darnley DaCosta Ward until his death in 1989.
Toward the Future
The Ward family continues to be involved with Mount Gay Rum distilleries, majority interest of which was acquired by the Remy Cointreau Group in 1989. This has led the company in a new direction and allowed it to benefit from the French multinational's extensive distribution and international marketing acumen. Mount Gay Rum now stands poised for an exciting future, well on the way to being discovered by connoisseurs of fine sprits around the world.
A Dr William Gay is known to have owned a thirty acre sugar plantation at St Lucy as early as 1660, bequeathing it in trust to his son. An uncle or cousin maybe of the John Gay, born in Devonshire in 1685, who wrote The Beggar's Opera and whose first published poem was on the subject of Wine? The name William Gay was one on a list ofowners ofland of ten acres or more dated 1638, without however giving the location. But the site was pinpointed by a deed dated 12 January 1663 stating:
Lieut William Gay and Ensign Abel Gay, both of the Island aforesaid [Barbados] ... bargain and sell unto Major Richard Gay of the same island ... a parcel of land situate lying and being partly in the parish of St Peters, All Saints, and partly in the Parish of St Andrews, Overhills, commonly called the Upper Plantation.
The schedule attached to the deed listed the equipment which was part of the sale: one engine or windmill, four coppers, one still, worm (the coiled tube connected to the head of the still) and worm tubb, four cisterns, one curing house, one boiling house, one old mill house, etc.
Most of the sugar factories set up in Barbados with the planting of sugar cane from 1640 onwards had means of distilling their surplus molasses or cane juice. The inclusion of that still in the schedule of 1663 shows that Mount Gay was no exception. Positive proof of rum production at Mount Gay does not come however until 146 years later, when an entry in a ledger inherited by the Ward family shows that in August 1809 115 gallons of rum were sold to Messrs J & H Goodridge at 2s 7d and 20 gallons to John Gill at 2s 93/4d. It is a long gap without written evidence of rum making, but there can be little doubt that it had, in fact, taken place without break since 1663, which in 1983 makes Mount Gay the oldest known rum brand name in existence.
By 1825 the Gay family were no longer the owners of Mount Gay Plantation, though every subsequent proprietor kept the name. It passed into the hands of an Englishman, who also had property back home, called Cumberbatch Sober. In 1860 he sold it to the Thornhill family who never visited it; in 1918 it was purchased by a member of a prominent St Philip family, Aubrey Fitzosbert Ward, who in 1908 had bought from Dr St John the Fairfield Sugar Estate which had gone into chancery.
Under that 1906 law those who distilled rum were prohibited from marketing a finished product. They had to confine their operation to making various types of raw spirit, to the specification of customers who bought them for maturing and blending into a rum which they bottled and sold under brand names of their own choosing.
In 1926 AF Ward, John F Hutson and JW Browne formed a partnership in Bridgetown to blend, bottle and market the rum produced by the distillery at Mount Gay, St Lucy. They called this independent company Mount Gay Distilleries (City Branch). Browne opted out of the partnership around 1930, and it became an incorporated company as Mount Gay Distilleries Ltd in 1942. In the following year the distilling company at Mount Gay, St Lucy was also incorporated as The Rum Refinery of Mount Gay Limited. In 1980 Mount Gay Distilleries Ltd, of which DD Ward was Managing Director, sold sixty per cent of its equity to their US agents, Foremost-McKesson Inc, and a contract was made for the supply of rum between The Rum Refinery of Mount Gay and Mount Gay Distilleries. When DD Ward retired as Managing Director of the latter in February 1981, he was succeeded by Irvine Armstrong, remaining however as chairman and a consultant. The brand name of the rum they marketed is, of course, 'Mount Gay'. The molasses, supplied by Barbados Sugar Factories Ltd, come from anywhere on the island. But the water which is mixed with them is unique to St Lucy, coming from a well that has supplied the plantation since time immemorial.
Pictures gallery
Distillery Garden
Sir John Gay
Here are full texts from the labels
bb17: MG; Mount Gay Premium White Rum; Product of Barbados; 750 ml; 43% alc/vol, 86 U.S. Proof; Blended and Exported by Mount Gay Distilleries Limited, Brandons, St. Michael, Barbados, W.I.
bb_80: 4/5 quart; 90 proof; Mount Gay Refine Eclipse Rum; Made over 100 years on the island of Barbados, British West Indies by mount Gay Distillers (who bottle and export it)
bb19: MG; 750 ml; 40% alc/vol; Mount Gay Refined Eclipse Barbados Rhum - Rum; Perfected by tradition since 1703; Product of Barbados; Produit de la Barbade; Produced, blended and exported by Mount Gay Distilleries Limited, Brandons, St. Michael, Barbados, West Indies; 9501007100300
bb22: 1 litre; MG; 40% alc/vol; Mount Gay Refined Eclipse Barbados Rum; As made over 100 years on the island of Barbados, West Indies; Product of Barbados; Produit de la Barbade; Bottled and exported by Mount Gay Distilleries Limited, Prince Wm. Henry Street, Bridgetown, Barbados, W.I.
bb23: MG; Original Mount Gay Special Reserve Barbados Rum; Perfected by tradition since 1703; Product of Barbados; 40% alc by vol (80 proof); Produced, bottled and exported by Mount Gay Distilleries Limited, Brandons, St. Michael, Barbados, West Indies
bb24: MG; Mount Gay Aged Rum Barbados Sugar Cane Brandy; 43% alc/vol, 86 U.S. Proof; 750 ml; Product of Barbados; Blended and exported by Mount Gay Distilleries Limited, Brandons, St. Michael, Barbados, W.I.
bb148: MG; Map of Island Barbados; Mount Gay Rum; Barbados; Perfected by Tradition; Since 1703; Premium White; 43% alc/vol; Produced, blended and exported by Mount Gay Distillers Limited, Barbados, St. Michael, Barbados, West Indies; 750 ml; 1D0304003
bb150: MG; Map of Island Barbados; Mount Gay Rum; Barbados; Perfected by Tradition; Since 1703; Eclipse; 43% alc/vol; Produced, blended and exported by Mount Gay Distillers Limited, Barbados, St. Michael, Barbados, West Indies; 750 ml; 1D0004224
bb149: MG; Map of Island Barbados; Mount Gay Rum; Barbados; Perfected by Tradition; Since 1703; Sugar Cane Brandy; 43% alc/vol; Produced, blended and exported by Mount Gay Distillers Limited, Barbados, St. Michael, Barbados, West Indies; 1 Liter; 1D0103006
bb25: MG; Mount Gay Extra Old Barbados Rum; 43% alc/vol, 86 Proof; 750 ml; Product of Barbados; Blended and exported by Mount Gay Distilleries Limited, Brandons, St. Michael, Barbados, W.I.; 9501007403401
bb98: MG; Mount Gay Rum; Extra Old Barbaos Rum; Since 1703; Blended and exported by Mount Gay Distilleries Limited, Brandons, St. Michael, Barbados, W. I., 43% alc/vol
bb151: MG; Mount Gay Rum; Barbados; Perfected by tradition since 1703; Extra Old; 43% alc/vol; Blended and exported by Mount Gay Distilleries Limited, Brandons, St. Michael, Barbados, West Indies; 750 ml
bb_12: Mount Gay; Extra old Barbados Rum
bb_40: Mount Gay; Est. 1703; Barbados Rum; Silver
bb_41: Mount Gay; Est. 1703; Barbados Rum; Eclipse; 9501007100508
bb_42: Mount Gay; Est. 1703; Barbados Rum; Black Barrel; Small Batch Handcrafted Rum; Master Blender Smith; Rum Produced, Blended and Exported by Mount Gay Distilleries Limited, Barbados, St. Michael, Barbados, West Indies; 43% alc/vol; 9501007223504
bb_70: Mount Gay; Est. 1703; Barbados Rum; Black Barrel; Small Batch Handcrafted Rum; Master Blender Smith; Rum Produced, Blended and Exported by Mount Gay Distilleries Limited, Barbados, St. Michael, Barbados, West Indies; 43% alc/vol; 9501007223306
bb162: Mount Gay; Est. 1703; Barbados Rum; XO; Reserve Cask Rum; Bottle No ZA 163439; Master Blender Allan Smith; Rum Produced, Blended and Exported by Mount Gay Distilleries Limited, Barbados, St. Michael, Barbados, West Indies; 43% alc/vol; 700 ml; 9501007803508
bb_74: Mount Gay; Est. 1703; Barbados Rum; XO; Reserve Cask Rum; Bottle No AZ1975; Master Blender Smith; Rum Produced, Blended and Exported by Mount Gay Distilleries Limited, Barbados, St. Michael, Barbados, West Indies; 43% alc/vol; 750 ml; 9501007803508
bb_63: Mount Gay; Est. 1703; Barbados Rum; XO; Reserve Cask Rum; Bottle No AY13468; Master Blender Smith; Rum Produced, Blended and Exported by Mount Gay Distilleries Limited, Barbados, St. Michael, Barbados, West Indies
bb_64: Mount Gay; Est. 1703; Barbados Rum; Master Blender Collection; XO; The Peat Smoke Expression; Aging Bourbon Cask; Bottle No 0001/6120; Master Blender Smith; Rum Produced, Blended and Exported by Mount Gay Distilleries Limited, Barbados, St. Michael, Barbados, West Indies; 9501007834502
bb_67: Mount Gay; Est. 1703; Barbados Rum; XO; Cask Strength Rum; Rum Produced, Blended and Exported by Mount Gay Distilleries Limited, Barbados, St. Michael, Barbados, West Indies
bb_71: Mount Gay; Est. 1703; Barbados Rum; Master Blender Collection; Pot Still Rum; 2009; Destillation: Copper Pot Stills; Casks: American Whiskey; Style: Complex & ...; Age: 10 Years; Master Blender: T. Branker?; Distilled, Aged and Blended by Mount Gay Distilleries Limited, Barbados, St. Michael, Barbados, Caribbean; Bottle Number 0168/4920
bb_65: Mount Gay; Est. 1703; Barbados Rum; Copper Pot
bb_66: Mount Gay; Est. 1703; Barbados Rum; Copper Column
bb168: Mount Gay; Barbados Rum; Est. 1703; Black Barrel; Double Cask Blend; 3024733; Cask: American whiskey & deeply charred bourbon; Style: Robust & bold; Notes: Gingerbread, lychee, toffee; Handvrafted T. Branker; 700 ml; Rum; Distilled, aged and blended by Mount Gay Distilleries Limited, Barbados, Caribbean; 43% alc/vol; 9501007224501
bb_89: Mount Gay Barbados Rum; Est 1703; Black Barrel; Double Cask Blend; Casks: American Whiskey & Deeply Chassed Bourbon; Style: Robust & Bold; Notes: ...; 750 ml; Rum; Distilled, Blended and Bottled by Mount Gay Distillers Limited, Barbados, Caribbean; 43% alc / vol; 9501007224501
bb_61: 1703 Master Select; Year Released: 2016; Hand selected and blended from 55 Reserve Cask; Matured 10 to 30 years; Bottle No 7760/12000; Master Blender Smith; Mount Gay; Est. 1703; Barbados Rum
bb_62: 1703 Master Select; Year Released: 2016; Hand selected and blended from 55 Reserve Cask; Matured 10 to 30 years; Bottle No 7760/12000; Master Blender Smith; Mount Gay; Est. 1703; Barbados Rum; 9501007823506
bb_68: Mount Gay Rum Tricentennial Selection
bb157: MG; Mount Gay; Since 1703; Product of Barbanos; 40% alc/vol (80 Proof); Barbados Sugar Cane Rum; Produced, Blended and Exported by Mount Gay Distillers Limited, Barbados, St. Michel, Barbados West Indies; 087236950088
bb131: Mount Gay Rum; Barbados; Since 1703; Extra Old; 43% vol; Blended and exported by Mount Gay Distillers Limited, Barbados, St. Michael, Barbados, West Indies; 700 ml; 9501007803508
bb169: Mount Gay Rum; Barbados; 1703; 43 alc/vol; Old cask selection; 700 ml; 1D1205005; 9501007813507
bb116: MG; Mount Gay Rum Mango; Flavored Barbados Rum; 750 ml; 32% alc/vol
bb_22: MG; Mount Gay Rum Vanilla; Flavored Barbados Rum; 750 ml; 32% alc/vol
bb_5: MG; Mount Gay; Since 1703; Barbados Sugar Cane Rum
bb152: Est. 1942; Don Jaime Sprock; Ponche Kuba; Cream Liqueur; Don Jaime Sprock; JS; Product of Barbados; 9% Alc/Vol; 750 ml; Produced, bottled and exported by Mount Gay Distilleries, St. Michael, Barbados, West Indies
it_147: Last Ward; 2007; Barbados Pure Single Rum; A very rare triple distillation; 100% Pot Still distillation; Distilled: 2007; Bottled: 2017; Aged: 10 y.o.; Aged in the tropics / Angel share > 65%; Sugar free; Barrel proof; 70 cl e; Distilled in a Double Retort Pot Still at Rum Refinery of Mount Gay Ltd, St. Lucy, Barbados, W.I.; 59% vol; Habitation Velier; The House of Pure Single Rums
it_148: Last Ward; 2009; Barbados Pure Single Rum; A very rare triple distillation; 100% Pot Still distillation; Distilled: 2009; Bottled: 2018; Aged: 9 y.o.; Aged in the tropics / Angel share > 64%; Sugar free; Barrel proof; 70 cl e; Distilled in a Double Retort Pot Still at Rum Refinery of Mount Gay Ltd, St. Lucy, Barbados, W.I.; 59% vol; Habitation Velier; The House of Pure Single Rums
de_354: The Rum Cask; Barbados; Single Cask Rum; MG; Distilled: 2000; Aged 19 Years; Bottled: 2019; Limited Edition; Pot Still; Cask Strength; 50 cl; www.therumcask.de; 55.1% vol
uk_198: Duncan Taylor Single Cask Rum; Distilled in: Barbados; At: Mount Gay Distillery; Distilled: 07.00, Bottled: 09.12; Cask No: 15; Style: Pot; One of 280 bottles; Distilled in 2000; Aged 12 years; 53.7% alc/vol; 700 ml; Aged in oak caska; No chill filtration, no added colorant; Bottled by Duncan Taylor Ltd, Huntly, Aberdeenshire, AB54 8JU7, Scotland
uk_175: Fine Barbados Rum Distilled in 2000 by the Mount Gay Distillery; 8 Years Old; 70 cl; Produce of Barbados; Mount Gay Distillery; Bristol Classic Rum
nl_46: The Duchess; Distilled at Barbados Oldest; 70 cl e; Barbados; 19 years old rum
bb~2: MG; Mount Gay Rum Eclipse Refined Barbados Rum; Perfected by tradition since 1703; Produced and blended by Mount Gay Distilleries Limited, Brandons, St. Michael, Barbados, West Indies; 9501007100508
bb~7: MG; Map of the island of Barbados; Mount Gay Rum; Barbados; Perfected by tradition since 1703; Eclipse; Produced and blended by Mount Gay Distilleries Limited, Brandons, St. Michael, Barbados, West Indies; 9501007100508
bb~8: Mount Gay Rum; Barbados; Since 1703; Extra Old; 43% vol; Blended and exported by Mount Gay Distillers Limited, Barbados, St. Michael, Barbados, West Indies; 700 ml; 9501007803508
bb~9: Mont Gay Rum; Barbados; 1703; 43% vol; Old Cask Selection; 700 ml; 9501007813507