St. Nicholas Abbey Rum Distillery
The Plantation
It is St. Nicholas Abbey’s mission to create rum of exceptional quality and provenance reflective of its 350-year heritage and to sustain its longstanding traditions while preserving a distinctive history of a simpler place and time.
St. Nicholas Abbey has a long tradition of producing rum, a spirit Barbados has claim on discovering in the 17th century, when plantation workers began experimenting with fermenting molasses into alcohol. Initial batches were not known for their quality; in fact early Barbadian rum was referred to as ‘Kill-Divil…a hot, hellish, and terrible liquor.’ Over time, distillation practices significantly improved and Barbadian rum became renowned in both Europe and Colonial America.
Since purchasing St. Nicholas Abbey in 2006, the Warren family has meticulously restored the property to its original splendour. With its significant importance in Barbadian history as one of the last surviving and intact 17th century plantations on the island, it is their mission to develop St. Nicholas Abbey as a self-supporting plantation in order to sustain this exceptional legacy for future generations. As part of this vision, the Warrens have created a cottage industry of sugar-related products, spearheaded by its signature offering, St. Nicholas Abbey Rum.
The Distillery
St. Nicholas Abbey
Following age-old tradition and expertise, the plantation has created a rum superior in its class. To accomplish this feat, the distillery has consulted Master Distiller Richard Seale of R.L. Seale and Foursquare Factory who takes a personal interest in rums distilled from sugar cane. He has assisted the Plantation in recreating an authentic recipe worthy of the St. Nicholas Abbey name.
The Plantation cultivates and harvests by hand a select variety of sugar cane unique to St. Nicholas Abbey. Organic methods are utilised on the plantation; pesticides are not utilised in the production of our sugar cane.
The freshly cut cane is hand-fed into the steam mill where it is crushed just once to extract the sweetest juice possible. Within minutes, the juice is fed directly into the fermentation pots to ensure premium freshness and quality.
One of the few distilleries of its kind, St. Nicholas Abbey has shunned mass production and complex mechanical systems.
After fermentation, the cane juice is distilled in small, carefully-controlled quantities using the traditional batch still process. The pot still, customised to St. Nicholas’ specific requirements, produces a superior spirit worthy of the plantation’s heritage and pedigree.
The spirit is barreled in the finest bourbon oak casks and aged to perfection in the plantation’s own rum bond. St. Nicholas’ highland location benefits from cooling tradewind breezes that further aid in the ageing and maturation of the rum.
The aged rum is hand-bottled unblended straight from the barrel in an elegant glass decanter individually etched with an image of the St. Nicholas Abbey great house. The decanter is sealed with a mahogany cork topped with hand-embossed leather, symbolic of the island’s first mahogany trees, planted on Cherry Tree Hill over 250 years ago. The label is applied by hand and each decanter is engraved with both a number and date.
Stats + Links
Location : St. Peter, Barbados, West Indies
Distillery Owner: Larry Warren
Tasting Room : Sunday - Friday
10.00am - 3.30pm
Website : St Nicholas Abbey Rum Distillery
What They Say!
'Here’s a rum with absolute classic Bajan balance and finesse. Mellow sweetness, cleanliness and poise.' - David Broom 2008
GOLD MEDAL: PREMIUM RUM - 2009 Ministry of Rum Tasting Competition
