Original subtitles

In 2011 in a country estate in the west of Yorkshire,

in Leeds, two men stumbled upon 28 bottles

that they didn't know what they were.

These bottles would've been found in two separate bins

in the private collection at Harewood House

and they would've been covered in thick dust,

thick cobwebs, and in the back of the bins

where they would not have been moved or seen for centuries.

On investigation what they found was a very,

very precious liquid, and those bottles contained dark rum

and light rum from Mount Gay.

The simple fact

that because we've been making rum since 1703,

and there were very few

other distilleries producing bottled rum,

it's highly likely that this is where it came from.

The shape of the bottle is unique,

this would've been in a mold and mouth blown.

The glass itself is an amazing hue,

it's a definitely a bottle of antiquity,

and the liquid inside is, for me as a Bajan,

really is the timeline of Mount Gay

and a timeline of a people and a culture.

So it's amazing that it has made its way back home.

This is the oldest bottle of rum in the world,

discovered untouched in the cellars

of the Harewood House in Leeds.

And it has finally come home to Barbados at Mount Gay,

where it was first distilled in 1780.

When the door opens to the bonds at Mount Gay,

the first thing that hits you is the aroma.

You know, it's always a very awe moment.

We are very clear about how we make rum.

There will be no additives, we don't use sugar,

we don't use flavorings, you know,

we really just wanna showcase what happens in the barrel,

what happens at distillation,

and what that rum looks like in its unadulterated form.

We have a deed dating back to 1703

and we really do have some documentation

even before that,

at that time there was a registered still here at Mount Gay.

When I became the master blender,

people always regretted it like, oh,

you know, you're a female first master,

and that's really something heavy to carry.

And I would always comment by saying, no,

you know, the mantle that is heavy

is 300+ years of tradition,

that is what is heavy to carry, you know,

to preserve that, to honor that,

but still show that we can innovate,

to still show that there's a new way to look at this,

you know, to still change with the times.

Because I think for many years rum was very hush hush, like,

you know, it happened,

no one really looked at

what was happening inside the process.

But I think we're very different now.

We live on an island, you know,

this is an asset that is not easily replaceable.

So our maturation happens more quickly

than you would have in a colder environment,

and that has a lot to do with the tropical features

of the environment here at Mount Gay.

Island life starts with, I guess,

the appreciation of really listening to each other,

the understanding of living in the middle of the ocean,

and there are just a few of us.

There's a real pride that Bajan people have with that.

And for me, island life is taking the time to answer,

you know, very simple questions,

like, how's your day going?

Of course, time stands a bit still,

so beautiful sand, beautiful sea,

tropical fruits, north-easterly sea breeze

that's gonna cool you off just when you need it,

those 15 minute rainfalls we get in the morning.

So it's a combination of all those things,

but for me it's really rooted in the people of, you know,

really taking that time to care about each other

within those few minutes of, how are you?

I'm doing great.

And it's possibly the one thing

that we're most famed for, our people,

that warm greeting you're gonna get

when you do come to Barbados.

And I'm proud of that, in particular,

I think this is the pride of Barbados

that people speak about.

We are rich, we know that,

and rich in not possessions,

but absolutely rich knowing that we are fortunate enough

to wake up to this every day.

So it's very difficult to define,

but being Bajan, there are only

290,000 of us,

and that's special.

At Mount Gay, we have been here on the site

from as early as the middle 1650s,

but our reference, of course,

is 1703, and you'll see this on our bottles.

And this reference date speaks about

the existence of rum producing equipment.

So there would've been stills here from February 20th, 1703,

and since then we've been producing rum every day.

Now as a modern distillery, we have our labs,

you know, we have our molasses store,

our warehouses, and we call them bonds in Barbados,

where we mature our rum.

Beautiful, beautiful topography,

surrounded by green cane fields as far as the eyes can see.

Rum is not made from sugar, rum is made from sugar cane,

and there's a huge difference.

So it has to come from the plant,

otherwise it can't be called rum.

The sugar cane is a grass, a perennial grass,

which means that even if you cut it, it regrows.

Barbados has been cultivating cane for many,

many years as a monocrop.

The Mount Gay Estate is located at Mount Gay in Saint Lucy,

which is at the very north, or tippy top,

of Barbados.

If you were to look at a map,

where the island curves at the top,

we're located at the very top of the island or the north.

Some people would like to say it's very far,

but in Barbadian terminology, nowhere is far,

you can get anywhere in about 20 minutes

from the central point of Bridgetown.

When Mount Gay bought the estate,

there was only one single variety

or one type of sugar cane located throughout the estate.

Now this is something that we do not want,

because in the event that there's a disease,

this means that your entire production

can be wiped out within one cycle.

So what we did is we approached all of our neighboring farms

and we brought about 12 different varieties

to our estate and we put them in our nursery.

So from the nursery we have been planting

our estate with the different varieties

and this it to ensure continuity.

By just looking at them,

you can see that they grow differently,

they tiller differently, they look differently.

The skin, some are green,

some are red, some are purple.

This does not just translate in how they look,

but in also how they taste, how the juice tastes,

how the juice performs, and the different mineralities

that you can also find in the juices.

The sugar cane is indeed hard,

it has a hard exterior, and is coated with a waxy coating.

The young shoots grow from these nodes

and the inside is where the sucrose is stored.

Now, in the past,

in the sugar cane industry of Barbados,

the sucrose was very important because the main product

of the sugar industry was the sugar crystals itself.

But within the last two, or three years,

or so, we have deviated away from focusing on sugar crystals

and instead move more towards the production of molasses.

Barbados is the only island in the Caribbean chain

that is not volcanic.

All of the other islands are volcanic in nature.

We were not formed that way,

we were formed when two plates collided

and then Barbados rose to the surface.

So Barbados is actually a coral or a limestone island.

Our soil is calcareous in nature

and this means that different types of nutrients

are available for the sugar cane to grow,

as opposed to if you were planting in the deeper,

more acidic volcanic soils.

There's one person

that we are especially proud to have on our team,

his name is Mr. Grantley Hurley,

and he is the renowned king of the crop here in Barbados.

This meant that Grantley cut the most cane

out of all the cane cutters throughout Barbados.

So it's kind of a title of prowess

and something that he himself is very proud of.

My father used to grow a lot of sugar canes,

so when the school season over, me and my brothers,

we would go and cut the canes.

And then that's how I get into

the cutting cane on the farms.

I was cutting cane from the time I was about 11 years old.

The competition is like when we used to cut canes by hand,

they had a lot of people cutting caning

from different parts of the island.

So all who cut the most cane for our whole season

becomes what they call the king.

I cut 16 tons one day, it is a world record.

Throughout Barbados everybody called me the king.

Sugar cane is intrinsically linked to all things Barbados.

Entire societies were formed around sugar cane

and sugar cane estates.

It used to be the backbone of our economy until the 1970s.

It is very important

for the preservation of our environment.

So I don't think it's something that we can escape,

but we always have to appreciate the contribution

that sugar cane made to Barbados as a whole.

Barbadians tend to have very strong views about sugar cane

and it can go either way, negative or positive.

Negative because of its link to the plantocracy

and the enslaved people, and what it meant in the past.

But positive because of the contributions

that it made to society

and how it helped Barbados develop to what it is today.

I think more and more as a people

we're becoming aware of a lot of our own history,

and I think this is where, you know,

you can't have a conversation about colonialism.

A young country like ours, when I say young,

independence is only, you know,

50 something years and a new republic.

So we have the opportunity for the next generation

to speak about our historical past

and not the historical past of colonial countries.

So I think it's the context of how those stories are told,

but definitely it starts with allowing those conversations

to happen and the people that the stories are about

to be part of the conversation.

Whether it's the clothes that we wear,

or the food that we eat, or the things that we drink,

we're actually drinking the past.

Some of it has been updated, some of it has not been,

and it's fascinating to find out which.

And so for me, the important thing about history

is that we live it and repeat it every day,

and it has lessons if we just sit still and listen.

When you talk about the history of Barbados now,

it's a fascinating place.

It's an island out in the middle of the Atlantic

where the present set of people, our ancestors,

were those who were brought here roughly 400 years ago,

some forcibly, others voluntarily,

others through a form of penile exile.

But what we have today is a society that's growing,

it's maturing, it's experimenting with what democracy is,

and trying to make it a better

and safer place for its children.

When we talk about Barbados, that 400 years of contact

and contestation, we're talking about that small island

being settled by the British in 1627 after having,

in their words, found it in 1625,

being blown off course.

And returning with Europeans and Africans

to settle this island.

And somewhere along the line

the word rum comes into the taxonomy,

and it's believed that, that word originates

here on this island.

When you look at the early history of rum,

the early development of sugar,

it carries with it a certain trauma,

but recognize that in that trauma

they also brought their own innovative techniques,

because some of them would've come from societies

that would've distilled product

and that would've manufactured things.

And what it has done is to create something new.

Post emancipation, post independence,

the descendants of those persons,

in some cases, either work or own some of the spaces

that produce these products.

And therefore, it's a recognition of,

yes, trauma has occurred,

but there also equally must be a recognition

that persons have innovated and has made it their own.

It therefore means that you tell the true story,

you embrace that part of the trauma,

you also discuss the innovation,

and then a recognition that all who would have played

a hand in it came from this island.

And as we go into the 21st century,

I think we're seeing that same type of innovation

being applied to its rum,

where it is still a world's leader.

And luckily for us,

having the oldest continuous rum distillery in the world,

located on this island, is an amazing thing.

We make the glue for people.

Really.

We are there for birth and everything in between,

till you leave the earth.

The perfect thing is rum,

it really does represent, for me as a Bajan,

it's not just a liquid,

this is the distillation of a people and a culture.

The steps to creating rum at Mount Gay

are you start with molasses,

and to the molasses you add water and yeast,

that is fermentation.

After fermentation, we have distillation.

After distillation, we have maturation.

After maturation, we have blending.

After blending, we have bottling,

Rum production is three basic ingredients.

There's the molasses.

Here in the English speaking Caribbean

we always use molasses as a source material.

For over 300 years we've been receiving water

from our onsite well, and nothing has changed there,

we're still using that same well

that was used from the start of Mount Gay.

Mount Gay has its own proprietary yeast,

which was developed based on the wild yeast strains

that were found here at the distillery.

So as I said, three basic ingredients,

molasses, water, and yeast.

Limestone is a very porous rock.

So what happens is that when it rains,

this water filters through our soil,

through this limestone rock, and enters the caves

and the caverns below the surface of Barbados.

Now this is a natural filtration system,

so that makes our water very clean, and crystal clear,

and ready for use.

Molasses is the byproduct of sugar production.

Now, back when sugar was king in the Caribbean

and in Latin America,

everyone's focus was on producing the best quality sugar,

and the byproduct, the molasses.

Now molasses has actually become

in some ways more valuable than sugar.

It's a very old distillery.

So the methods that would've been employed

in terms of storage and so on are obviously from way back.

Here at Mount Gay we store our molasses underground.

As you know, molasses is a very dense liquid,

very heavy.

The beauty about storing below ground is you already have

your support structures right there.

Once we are ready to use the molasses,

we pump from our underground tank,

we would transfer it into what we call our mixing tank.

Now this is situated in the area of the vat loft

where the wooden vats, which are used for fermentation,

where those are located.

Because of Barbados' location within the Caribbean,

we are the most easterly of the Caribbean islands.

We don't quite sit on the island chain.

That geographical position allows us to have

or experience,

this trade wind that blows across

the north of the island, specifically.

And why is that important to us

is because we have an open fermentation.

Open air fermentation is where you add your water,

you add your molasses,

we do add our proprietary yeast as well.

It's open, there's no cover,

there's no top, there's nothing,

it's just open.

Fermentation is a step where we convert the sugars

that are in molasses into the ethanol,

which is what we want for the distillation step.

Being living organisms, once the yeast have food,

they have the right temperature,

and they have a a source of oxygen, they're gonna multiply,

they're going to spread and make more yeast.

So that's what we promote in the fermentation process.

Mount Gay distillery uses a proprietary yeast.

This is a yeast that was isolated

from the environment here at the distillery.

It was selected because of its robust nature,

it's very resilient.

It can handle high levels of alcohol

and higher levels of temperature as well than regular yeast.

Now the fact that, that yeast was found here in St. Lucy

just goes to show that there are many microbes,

yeast, bacteria, and so on,

which are in the environment,

which will help produce alcohol.

In the past,

I believe that a lot of the wild yeast and bacteria

that in the environment would've impacted significantly

what was produced in the vat, and we want that to continue.

So we want to continue to have that additional local flora

and fauna, giving us those flavors

that would not be found anywhere else in the world.

Distillation for me definitely is where you start

to see the science and the craft, you know,

meeting each other, you know,

and the craft kinda creeping, you know,

a little higher in terms of how you do it

and what you need to know to do it.

That balance of pot distilled rum and column distilled rum,

it is really looking for those signature aromatics

of banana, vanilla,

mocha, you know, dark chocolate,

those are really what we look for.

It is about our copper pot stills,

and those big, bold notes you get

from rum that's distilled on those pot stills.

Distillation process actually is very simple.

It's boiling off the alcohol

from a mixture of alcohol and water.

In our pot stove area, we have four pots,

each kind of unique in its design.

And then we have the Coffey still,

which is one of the few operating Coffey stills

here in the western hemisphere.

Now, with each of these assets,

we can actually produce a different distillate from,

let's say, one particular batch of wash.

Anyone can come in, and once the still

is at an equilibrium position,

can come in and just watch the still.

You know, you don't have to do anything.

It's only when things start to change

and go wrong that you actually have to go

and make adjustments.

And then you start to see, well,

if I make this adjustment, this happens.

So next time I'll make the opposite adjustment

and see about that.

You know, so it's almost a continuous learning process.

The one skill that you need is to be proactive.

You can't wait until these things happen,

you always have to be one step ahead.

And that to my mind is what would make a very good stiller.

There's never a boring moment.

Ultimately what we do between the fermentation

and the distillation is try to provide

as wide a range of different flavors

and different distillates, and different complexities

so that even before we get to the stage

where we decide what type of barrel

we want to age this liquid in,

we have already a range of different liquids

that we can somewhat play with in order to give us

that final liquid that we're looking for.

Some would say they're as many rum shops

as churches on the island, and many are side by side.

They are places to meet to enjoy a bottle of rum together

and usually to make good friends.

And what you'll find is two people become four,

and those become eight,

and I think it's not only a unique experience,

but emphasizes the importance of that island life

I speak about, being interested in people.

I can't tell you how many times I've been in rum shops

and I've had two hour conversations with people

and I don't know their names, because that wasn't important.

You know, what was important was the conversation,

whatever the thing we were talking about,

being interested in that moment.

This rum shop that you are at

is one of the older rum shops.

So this is lots of history and heritage

behind the shop right here, right?

And coupled with the fact

that it's one of the very few rum shops

that you can find directly on the water.

So they've been around for a very, very long time.

A few years ago we had over 1600 village rum shops.

Now you must remember, Barbados is a 166 square miles,

21 miles long and 14 miles wide.

And in that small space

you have over 1600 village rum shops.

When you come to rum shop, you can order your product

by the bottle because nobody's gonna pour a drink for you.

You order it in sizes.

You're gonna get a bowl with some ice in it

and you're gonna get your cups,

and you are gonna pour your own liquids.

We also come here to play games.

So we are actually sitting on a domino table right now.

And domino's a massive thing in rum shops.

Most rum shops you will find have a domino table

and some dominos.

And this is something that have passed on

from generation to generation.

The thing is about these rum shops

is that you can find all walks of life

of people in a rum shop.

The prime minister, the attorney general,

all these people come to a rum shop as well.

So the rum shop is just not for the ordinary man,

everybody enjoys the rum shop.

For me, a rum shop is like the college.

I've learned so much in a rum shop,

because you have some older folks,

and all conversations happen in here,

all types of conversations.

So we in a rum shop can be discussed in sports,

we can be discussing cricket, which is our main sport.

The guys discuss football, they discuss politics.

So you can learn a lot in a rum shop,

because the rum shop is the culture,

it is where you're gonna get

the true essence of the Barbadian man,

affectionately known as a Bajan.

This is one of my favorite places here at Mount Gay.

It's just serene, you know,

walking in, you think nothing is happening,

but so much is happening inside the barrel at the same time.

It's that perfect mix, it's that balance,

so you know, it's always a majestic feeling to walk in,

to know so much is happening but it looks so quiet.

We now take each and every one of these distillates

or rums and they can go to the maturation phase.

You have that great exchange between the wood and the rum.

And then what also is happening, and what you can't see,

is you have this barrel right above it,

you're gonna have that evaporation

where alcohol is leaving the barrel

and going out into the atmosphere.

You can now have different types of oak

or different types of wood.

You can have different types of spirits

that have previously been in.

So you can have ex-bourbon, ex-whiskey,

you know, ex-wine barrels, ex-cognac,

you know, you can have new oak,

we have French oak, we have an American oak,

we have Andean oak.

So you see how the toolbox starts to get larger,

and larger, and larger, and larger.

And this is the toolbox that I use to create blends.

So we're gonna go through

a number of single distillate samples

to see if they could become components of XO.

We'll decide if each samples are appropriate

or if only one or two,

so we can move ahead to the final blend.

The XO is at the back for reference.

The blend composes rums from 5 to 17 years.

But there's a specific profile

that you're looking for for each of those year components.

So each year doesn't bring the same characteristics

to the final XO blend, they bring different things.

We expect the older rums to just bring that more balance,

that more maturer characteristic in terms of being able

to pull out the fruitiness balanced with the oak notes,

the hint of vanilla in the background,

the saltiness after you've tasted the sample.

You know, all of those things

are expected of the older samples,

while the younger samples, be it the five year,

six year, those are the ones you're gonna get

more the floral notes from.

You don't expect to get big oak notes

from those ones just yet.

But those are really the subtle notes

that you have in the XO,

and they help with the aromatics as well,

because the aromatics are still pretty big

on the fruity on these ones.

So that's why you go through the year samples,

and like I said, it's not about choosing

a specific rum, because this is the recipe.

It's all about which ones bring the characteristics

that will compliment the other ones

when we make a final XO blend and tie it all together

to have that Mount Gay DNA in the background.

I can't wait.

Amazing today. - Nice.

Yeah.

Amazing catch, boy.

Was a good day on the ocean.

Yeah. - Damn, alright.

Love it, I love it, yeah.

Yep, yep, yep. - Here we go buddy.

Got another surprise, a couple more.

Good stuff. - A couple more for you.

Yeah, here we go.

Amberjack? - It's amberjack.

One of my favorites, man. - Yeah?

Glad to know. - Yeah, thank you.

Let's go, let's take it to the grill.

It's about love of the food and when people taste it

you see them look around at you like,

wow, you know?

Sometimes as well they come to me and they tell me,

these fingers are like how my grandmother used to make it,

and that puts a smile on my face,

'cause deep down inside I think that's where mine came from,

my mom and my grandmother.

She was an avid person in the kitchen,

so somehow it was embedded within me

and ingrained in my fingers and my psyche,

and now I'm a chef as well.

When it comes from the sea, all you smell

and all you can taste is the saltiness, the earthiness,

the natural flavors of the sea, and that is what I love.

And for me, I get my fresh fish

and my fresh lobster from the sea.

I have a small grill, you know,

right on the sea.

So the guys come in with their boats, then they give me,

you know, whatever fish is available,

I choose and we go from there.

And that for me is key.

Five to seven minutes if so much,

'cause you don't want to overcook it either.

And I normally have it on a very high heat

so it may just take two to three minutes.

So we'll come back to it momentarily.

To get the core

of what Barbados offers,

you need to go to the beach bars, the rum shops,

where you have the ham cutters

and a bit of cheese and some local hot sauce,

and then you have the rum there with it,

the Mount Gay rum to drink.

I've found that I've infused a lot of my cooking

with the rum that they produce.

Lemon, the rum, the sugars,

the different spices, make your marinates onto the meats,

onto the fish, onto the grill,

and create, and the caramelization,

the flavors, the smokiness,

it all meshes together fantastically.

Street food, that's where it's at.

This is what I love, from the sea,

essence of Barbados.

Six o'clock, just as the sun's

just gone down

and nature's music has begun.

The sound of the evening symphony of these frogs

is a reminder that it doesn't matter

how, you know,

the burdens of life,

the day-to-day busy that you are,

it doesn't really matter.

For me it's that emotion of that this

tiny little animal

could create just this beautiful sound.

It's like a spiritual washing

that you have in these moments.

Rum in the glass, you know,

it is the history and the heart of Barbados.

But then there's also the people,

like that's what's being passed down.

Every new person that comes into Mount Gay, you know,

when we have those that are retired

and worked here for 30 years,

and when we have, you know,

like son and father generations coming through.

And for me that's what preserves the Mount Gay history,

it's what preserves the Mount Gay style, and ensures that,

you know, 300 years from now we're still making rum

that anybody who tastes, or anybody who drinks,

or anybody who wants to enjoy it knows it came

from the house of Mount Gay.

Barrels that I may have had a hand in putting down 10,

15 years ago, they're now coming out

and having a hand in bottling them.

And some of those rums

I would've actually put into the barrel myself.

So you know, it gives me a real personal connection to that.

At harvest is a natural height,

there's so many sights, and sounds,

and smells, and it's always something

that keeps me very excited.

So my favorite time of year is sugar cane harvest time.

And that's what keeps me so intrigued.

And I just want to do what's best

for the industry where possible.

It's something that we invented.

Barbados rum means something.

You're not just drinking a distilled liquid,

it's a combination of expertise and a real history.

To define what is Bajan is surely

the ability to survive,

the ability to produce things that no one else can.

And ultimately to share it,

'cause I think this is in our nature,

we're just a sharing people.