Rhum Barbancourt - Haitian Since 1862

In 1862, Dupré Barbancourt founded a rum distillery in Haiti bearing his name. He applied the traditional French distillation method to sugar cane juice and the aging process in oak barrels from Limousin, as practiced in the production of cognac in his native Charente. Despite modernizations made to its facilities from 1862, the Rhum Barbancourt distillery remains faithful to the tradition and principles of its founder.
The grand specificity of Rhum Barbancourt comes from its use of sugar cane juice (excluding molasses, a residue from the sugar-refining process which is used by other rums from the region). Sugar cane juice has a much richer flavor (wider diversity of aromas) than molasses, and that difference in the raw material distilled translates in the taste of the distilled rum. To ensure freshness, sugar canes harvested from a 600-hectare plantation are delivered directly to the distillery. Half of it (those growing in fields around or close to the distillery) reach it by mules only. The other half (coming from other parts of the islands) are transported by mules to the tractor, then on the tractor cart to the distillery. The canes are immediately crushed to obtain sugar cane juice, called vesou. This juice is then fermented with an exclusive Barbancourt yeast that brings out fruity aromas. After distillation, the resulting rum is then left to age in oak barrels.