Mount Gay

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Founded

1703

Region

Barbados

Status

Operational

Company

Rémy Cointreau

Production type

Pure Single Rum, Single Blended Rum

Mount Gay is the world's oldest surviving commercial rum distillery, dating all the way back to 1703. It is located on a 280-acre estate in the Saint Lucy parish that was originally called Mount Gilboa, later renamed in 1801 after Sir John Gay Alleyne who had managed it for owner, John Sober, since 1747. The estate was bought by Aubrey Fitzosbert Ward in 1918 and remained in his family until 2014.

Today the distillery is owned by the Rémy Cointreau. The French multinational had owned the Mount Gay brand since 1989 and united it with the distillery in 2014 through its acquisition of Rum Refinery of Mount Gay Ltd from Frank Ward Jnr. It primarily produces single blended rum on a combination of its pot and column stills.

In the early 20th century there were laws in Barbados that forbade distilleries from selling their rum directly to consumers. As a result, the Mount Gay operation was divided between two companies, one that operated the distillery called Fairfield and Mount Gay Ltd, and a blender and bottler called Mount Gay Distilleries Ltd. The latter was established in the 1920s and its believed to have begun marketing Mount Gay-branded rum in the subsequent decade.

The brand as it is recognised today has been available since the 1970s. The range is still headlined by an expression called Eclipse, which was first sold as a standalone label back in 1910 and is named after the solar eclipse on Barbados on May 9th the previous year. Despite several changes to the brand's core range, it has remained the sole stalwart.

The remainder of the current proprietary range comprises Black Barrel, XO, 1703 Master Select and Silver.

Rémy Cointreau

2014-present

Rémy Cointreau

1989-2014 (brand only)

McKesson Corporation

1982-1989 (brand only)

Foremost-McKesson

1980-1982 (brand only)

Mount Gay Distilleries Ltd

1936-1980 (brand only)

Rum Refinery of Mount Gay Ltd