February 2025 Auction

West Indies Dark Rum 1948 Samaroli

Samaroli is perhaps Italy's most revered independent bottler of Scotch whisky, but he produced some outstanding rum as well. According to Emmanuel Dron's Collecting Scotch Whisky, of all the alternative spirits to whisky, which included cognac and armagnac as well, this very rum is the one he was most proud of.

Although the company has put more of a focus on rum under the watch of Silvano's successor, Antonio Bleve, rum from the era of Samaroli himself is less prominent and often spectacular when it does appear.

This was distilled in the Caribbean in 1948, and was impressively aged before bottling in 1991.

This is one of 800 bottles .

West Indies Dark Rum 1948 Samaroli

Samaroli is perhaps Italy's most revered independent bottler of Scotch whisky, but he produced some outstanding rum as well. According to Emmanuel Dron's Collecting Scotch Whisky, of all the alternative spirits to whisky, which included cognac and armagnac as well, this very rum is the one he was most proud of.

Although the company has put more of a focus on rum under the watch of Silvano's successor, Antonio Bleve, rum from the era of Samaroli himself is less prominent and often spectacular when it does appear.

This was distilled in the Caribbean in 1948, and was impressively aged before bottling in 1991.

This is one of 800 bottles .

Wray and Nephew White Overproof / 60 Years Jamaica Independence

Located in the Clarendon parish of Jamaica, New Yarmouth is J. Wray & Nephew’s sister distillery to their globally renowned Appleton Estate. Although decidedly less prominent, it is far larger and also operates both pot and column stills, providing much of the rum for its parent company’s brands, including Edwin Charly, Coruba and Wray & Nephew Overproof.

A white rum from from Wray and Nephew produced at their New Yarmouth distillery. This limited edition rum was bottled to commemorate 60 years of Jamaica independence.

WIRD 2022 Planteray Prestige Cellar / Whisky Live Paris 2024

Launched in 2003, Plantation Rum is a brand owned by the well-established cognac producer, Cognac Ferrand. Established in 1989, Maison Ferrand has used its extensive contacts in the spirits industry to source some exceptional casks of rum. The company also has privileged access to those in the warehouses of Clarendon and Long Pond in Jamaica, through its acquisition of the West India Rum Distillery (WIRD) and the shares in National Rums of Jamaica that came with it. Its ownership of the Bajan WIRD distillery has seen it increasingly involved in rum production as well as bottling in recent years. In June 2020 it was announced that Plantation Rum would be changing its name to support the global dialogue around racial equality, with the company accepting the hurtful connotations that the word “plantation” can evoke.

A 2022 vintage, this is a single blended rum from WIRD. It was aged until 2024, when it was bottled for Whisky Live Paris.

The West India Rum Distillery, more commonly referred to by the acronym, WIRD, is a historic distillery in Barbados that has been producing rum since the 19th century. It currently operates four still sets, two of which are four-column stills. The newest of them is Canadian made, and the older one installed by English coppersmiths, John Dore, in 1975. The other two are pot stills, both connected to vintage rectifying columns, the oldest of which dates back to 1893. In the later 20th century the distillery was best known for its Cockspur rum brand, and in 1985 became one of the founding partners in National Rums of Jamaica, the holding company that owns Long Pond and a share of Clarendon. In 2017 however, Cockspur was sold off to a company called Woodland Radicle as WIRD was acquired by Maison Ferrand, a cognac producer established in 1989. The company had branched out into gin-making in 1995, and its purchase of WIRD completed its journey from independent rum bottler to distillers.

Worthy Park 2007 Rum Artesanal 50cl

From the pot still at Worthy Park distillery in Jamaica, this single cask rum was finished in an Islay single malt cask and bottled in 2020 by Heinz Eggert for their Rum Artesanal label.

Located in the Lluidas Vale of Jamaica’s Saint Catherine parish, the Worthy Park Estate is a sprawling 100,000 acres of land, around 40% of which is dedicated to sugar cultivation. Records indicate that rum production commenced there as far back as 1741 and took place there for 220 years before the original distillery was shut down due to an oversupply of Jamaican rum following the second world war. Amazingly, in 340 years the estate has been owned by just three different families, the most recent being the Clarke’s, who bought it in 1918. Gordon, the great-grandson of the first Worth Park Clarke submitted plans for a new state of the art distillery in 2005, which produced its first spirit two years later. It produces pure single rum from its own estate molasses on its sole double-retort pot still from Forsyths in Scotland. The distillery’s first brand was titled Rum Bar, before the casks initially laid down for ageing became Worthy Park’s first official release under their own name when the Estate Reserve was announced at RumFest in 2017.