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In an interesting twist, one of the earliest references (1843) to rum advertised as “Plummer’s” calls out “PINE APPLE JAMAICA RUM”. In time, and a few decades after “Wedderburn’s rums” became commonly advertised, “Plummer’s rums” began appearing, although a bit less frequently. At no point in any 1800s era documents I’ve found are ester levels or pungency used in classifying rums as Plummer or Wedderburn style, nor have I yet found any Plummer or Wedderburn references in Jamaican texts of the 1800s or very early 1900s. After extensive searching, the earliest reference I can locate to specific ester levels associated with Plummer and Wedderburn rums is the 1947 paper, The Chemistry of Rum Production, by J. R. McFarlane, chief chemist at Caymanas Estates Ltd. in Jamaica:

An interesting aside to the distillery story at this juncture is that prior to the 2014 acquisition, Rémy’s contract with the Rum Refinery of Mount Gay did not include exclusive rights to all the distillery’s capacity. One hundred percent pot still Barbados rum is an extreme rarity these days, so it’s not surprising that the relatively small outturn of Mount Gilboa rum was snapped up by knowledgeable rum-heads. Beyond the Mount Gilboa release, Ward sold off the remainder of his aged stock to a certain well-known rum company, which in turn sold a portion of it to another well-known rum company. In the distillery’s on-site laboratory, we then created our own custom Mount Gay blend using our column distilled rum alongside some three- and seven-year aged pot still rum.

In September of 2018, I sat down with Luca Gargano in London immediately prior to the Rum Tasting of the Century, celebrating the launch of Hampden Estate’s aged rum. For example, a very light pot-stilled American rum and a heavy Hampden Estate pot-stilled rum; they could both be pure single rums, but they’re very different in taste. But how will people recognize if Hampden Estate rum is different from a multi-column rum [without categories]? The consumer in the future will not know what a pure single rum is technically, but they will understand that a pure single rum is a different category than other rums.

I’ve been presented with fantastic opportunities to go behind the scenes, and I do my best to leverage that access into stories that stretch the boundaries. You can see some strong hints of this in my Barbados Rum Cheat Sheet (#5 on the list below), as well as on the Cocktail Wonk Facebook page, where I post all sorts of interesting items that don’t necessarily make it as stories here. While I’ve previously written about the intentionally below-the-radar bulk rum blenders E&A Scheer, in late 2017 Mrs. Wonk and I visited Scheer’s staggering warehouse facility in Amsterdam. I couldn’t pick only ten stories I felt summed up the best of this year’s output.