Spirit Of The Week: Mount Gay Rum Master Blender Collection—The Cognac Cask Expression

Being the oldest rum distillery in the world, established back in 1703, Mount Gay’s three centuries in crafting rum cements the quality of the juice coming out of their stills—from both double copper pot and copper column varieties.

“We started at the head of the class, because there’s no better expert to go to than the team at Rémy Martin with regards to how to work with French oak,” Trudiann Branker shares via Zoom from her headquarters in St. Lucy, Barbados. “So we started at the head of the class, but it was more so about understanding how to pair the rum distillates that we have at Mount Gay with this specific oak type.”

The pioneering Master Blender, the first female to hold that position in Barbados’ long history in rum making, shares with Maxim the dynamic relations and history behind the latest crown jewel in their Master Blender Collection: Mount Gay The Cognac Cask Expression. 

Being the oldest rum distillery in the world, established back in 1703 on the northernmost tip of the sun-kissed Caribbean island, Mount Gay’s three centuries in crafting rum cements the quality of the juice coming out of their stills—from both double copper pot and copper column varieties. However when it comes to the barrels they’re aged in, in the case of this eighth iteration of their Master Blender Collection, Branker deferred to the experts. The process entailed the amicable Branker telling the team at Rémy Martin the specific flavors she aimed to impart on the rum, and they hand selected the cognac casks based on that. 

And the House of Rémy Martin, itself founded back in 1724, boasts its own long history in crafting some of the finest cognac in the world from Grande Champagne and Petite Champagne crus. After acquiring Mount Gay in 1989, Rémy Martin’s relations with the esteemed rum maker continues to strengthen and evolve. Since aging and blending are arguably the two most important elements of cognac, any advice the Master Blender receives from the House is gratefully received. 

“I found working with the team at Rémy Martin, with regards to selecting the cognac cask and understanding what they know about French Oak—how to use or handle French oak—just marrying that with the beautiful rum that we make at Mount Gay was a no brainer,” Branker shares. So when it was time to update their XO expression—an Extra Aged rum developed by former Master Blender Jerry Edwards, and continued by Branker’s mentor Alan Smith—she tweaked her blend with a portion of liquid aged in cognac casks. “It was even more successful when we pulled the first samples and saw what that rum could do. How that delicate vanilla that you get from the French Oak really paired with our column distilled rum specifically, and that’s where this one was born.”

She recognized how well the Limousin wood played specifically with column distilled rum—how it enhanced Mount Gay’s existing fruit-forward notes, and introduced a dryness to the flavor profile usually attained through the use of pot-still rum. So in 2021 Branker experimented with aging solely column distilled rum in those cognac casks, keeping a careful eye on how it aged. After a full four years resting in Rémy Martin’s hand-selected casks, the magic of time and oak had plied their alchemy. 

“For us, personally I at Mount Gay, I felt that the maturation or the marriage of column distilled rum with ex-cognac French oak casks was the perfect marriage. The fruitiness was subtle enough at the end, it rounded what we normally get from our pure distillate, which tends to be more of a red apple, a little bit of a banana,” Branker reveals of the effect the wood has on the spirit. “We normally have a very forward vanilla note, here it was very much on the back end. These are all the things that we realized over time when working with these casks.”

Bottled at a potent 58% ABV, enough to survive a cocktail, but preferred for a dram with a large rock, only 6,276 bottles of Mount Gay Master Blender Collection: The Cognac Cask Expression are available worldwide at a SRP of $210. 

Follow Deputy Editor Nicolas Stecher on Instagram at @nickstecher and @boozeoftheday.