Antigua Distillery Limited

The idea for the Antigua Distillery Limited (ADL) was hatched in 1929 by a group of eight local businessmen who wanted to control the distilling process for their own rum brands and cooperate to buy the molasses to make them in bulk. Prior to this, shop owners had imported rum in-barrel from Barbados. Of the eight founders, seven were such shop owners and the members of the group were John R. Anjo, Joseph de Freitas, Manuel Dias, Emanuel C. Farara, Quin Farara, Emanuel Gomes, C.F. Joaquim and John A. Vieira.

Between them they raised a starting capital of £2,500 and the ADL was established in 1932, building its distillery on leased land on Rat Island in the harbour of Saint John's the following year. In its early days, the distillery continued the traditional practice of selling unaged rum by the barrel to local merchants who would blend and bottle their own brands. Notable examples of these were Red Cock, Silver Leaf, White House, Black Cock, and Bolanda, the latter of which is still produced and a local favourite known colloquially as "1 and 9."

The company bought its molasses from government-owned Antigua Sugar Factory as well as the smaller independently-owned Montpelier. The latter was known for its quality Muscovado molasses, so much so that ADL acquired it outright in 1944. This facilitated the launch of their first in-house brand, Cavalier Muscovado Rum, which followed just three years later and is still made by the distillery today.

The following decades were not favourable to the Antigua sugar industry however, which was slowly replaced by tourism economy on the island. ADL closed the Montpelier factory in 1954 and the state-owned mill followed in 1971. As such, the company switched to reliance on imported molasses which it mostly acquires from Guyana and Nicaragua. Today these are pumped directly from ships in the harbour to the distillery via underground pipes.

ADL prides itself on being one of the few distillers in the Caribbean to use still made entirely from copper, and it is the only one to use a hybrid still. This was created in 1991 when a column from its old Savalle setup was fused to its new John Dore three-column. The increased capacity this provided saw the launch of a new flagship brand called English Harbour in 1994.