Mount Gay Pot Still rum. Mount Gay is a household name and often one of my top recs for a staple, accessible rum that is free of sugar and additives that make rum, well, not rum. It’s the oldest active rum distillery in the world, originating in 1703 on the island of Barbados, and this year’s Mount Gay limited release dials back to old-time tradition with a pure pot still rum – read on to understand what makes this special!

Barbados is famous for the purity of their rums as one of the few rum-producing countries that legally ban additives. The worldwide retail rum situation is somewhat improving in recent years, but is still overrun with products rife with additives such as sugar, spices, flavorings, glycerin, molasses/caramel, and more. So for us spirit fans, it’s reassuring to have trusty real rum from Barbados producers like Mount Gay and Foursquare.

Now, what makes this bottle unique? As is with all spirits, pot stills were the traditional equipment used for distilling. When the column still was invented, its ability to produce cleaner and more efficient spirits was a catalyst for its popularity, adopted for whiskies to brandies to rums worldwide. It traveled to Barbados, and in conjunction with a 1900s Barbados law that forbade rum producers from directly selling to consumers, contributed to the popularity of blended rum on the island. Merchants would purchase bulk rum from producers, create their own blends, then bottle and sell under their own brands.

Today pretty much all rums from Barbados are blended from a combo of pot and column still distillates, and fully pot still Barbados rum is very rare to see. Flavorwise, pot stills will generally produce more flavorful spirits than column stills. Whether this is “better” or “worse” is largely subjective, but the world of pot still products is definitely a wild frontier, and this release presents the rare opportunity to try out a pure Barbadian pot still rum!

PS, another good read on this topic is here!