Last week, I spent two days in Miami at a
rum congress with some of the most influential rum producers in the world. Two of the most prolific topics was the
Geological Indication and Transparency
within the category. With the move by
the category to more premium and super-premium expressions, this has to to
happen if the category is going to be taken seriously.
Transparency has been a buzz word in the
spirits world for quite some time, and as consumers become more inquisitive and
knowledgeable, secretive operations are vulnerable to backlash. Rum has so far avoided the public wrath
inflicted on categories such as gin and whisky, but as its premiumization’s
trajectory accelerates, distillers are under greater pressure to speak about
their production methods openly and honestly. Alexandre
Gabriel, master blender of Plantation Rum, feels that any rules for rum production,
“must first and foremost promote transparency, while not killing the diversity
that makes rum so special”. He also believes, “The work of putting together a Geographical
Indication must be a careful process and it must be done in a way to explore
and research collectively the heritage of a particular country in rum making. It is also something that needs to be keep in
mind is that rum is a vibrant spirit and that has to continue and Geographical
Indication should not stifle that.”
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| Richard Seale: Foursquare Distillery |
Richard Seale, master distiller and blender
at Foursquare Distillery, says transparency is “essential to creating a super-premium
category” and identifies two ways to achieve premiumization – through adding ‘perceived
value’ or ‘intrinsic value’. ‘Perceived value’, he says, is created through
“packaging, misleading solera age claims and the addition of sugar syrup”,
which creates the “illusion of quality”. But ‘intrinsic value’ is based on
“genuine artisanal distillation and genuine
age”, and is an ethos largely associated with the whisky category.
“This is how we must build the premium category of rum,” he says.
“It is more than just to premiumize – it is how we premiumize that matters and
will determine our ultimate success. A consumer can and should buy on taste,
which is subjective, but what the consumer has to pay should always be based on
intrinsic value.”
Richard Seale finds that the “terrible
myth that rum has no rules, but rather, the problem is that our rules are not
recognized”. He says the United States and European Union, both key rum markets,
do not recognize the specific regulations from rum-producing nations, which he
calls a “genuine disgrace”. Seale also says the EU fails to properly enforce
its own regulations for rum, which prohibits the use of neutral grain spirit
and flavorings, among other things. “This lack of enforcement has helped make
rum a dishonest category, and has prevented the category from having the
confidence in its integrity that is necessary to develop the super-premium
class,” he says. Seale urges the European Union to recognize rum’s Geographical
Indication Is in the same way it recognizes Scotch whisky, but he also says that
the United States is a “vastly greater problem”.
