Spanish-controlled distillers in Cuba, Nicaragua, Puerto Rico and elsewhere typically produced smooth rums called añejo. English colonial holdings, including Jamaica, Bermuda and Barbados, made darker rums with more molasses character, while the French, in places like Haiti and Martinique, made rhum agricole from sugar cane juice.
“Most people think of Bacardi or Captain Morgan when it comes to rum and don’t really know rum beyond the major brands,” said Aleco Azqueta, cofounder of Atlantico, a Dominican Republic brand launched about four years ago. “Rum is where tequila was about 10 years ago in terms of consumer understanding. There is a similarity to craft beers in that rum producers take very different approaches to making rum.”
Azqueta says the Dominican Republic was one of the first places to make rum in the Caribbean. Christopher Columbus brought sugar cane to the island, and the first distillery dates back to the 1500s.
Atlantico is made using two different production styles. Part of the cane is processed using the rhum agricole method, while the rest is made from molasses. The two spirits are blended and then aged in a solera system similar to what is used for sherry production.
“There is a pyramid of barrels, and because of the evaporation that takes place in the climate of the Caribbean, you have to keep adding rum to the barrels,” Azqueta says. “Otherwise you could never age rum more than a few years. It evaporates at around 10 percent a year in the islands.”
David Meyers, North America regional director for Cockspur Rum from Barbados, says the emergence of sipping styles of rums has brought increased attention to rum. He notes while it is unclear where rum was first made in the Caribbean, the name originates from Barbados, where the spirit was originally called Rumbullion.
“Rum belongs alongside other quality brown spirits, such as whiskey, cognac and tequila. If you like those drinks, rum should be in your repertoire,” Meyers says. “One thing people don’t understand is that age expressions tend to undersell rum. It is a constant 84 degrees on Barbados, and that gives us a maturation rate that is three times the climate in Scotland.”
Meyers says that the master blender’s task is critical at Cockspur to take barrels of different ages and marry them to create a consistent flavor and high-quality flavor. This skill once caused a visiting Cognac maker to mistakenly identify Cockspur 12 as its brandy in a blind taste test.
“It’s an interesting time for rum,” says Meyers.
