History
St Lucia is one of the British Windward islands located in eastern part of the West Indies. The island's rum history is farily self contained but it was in 1931 that Denis Barnard established a family rum distillery at Dennery, this would later combine with a competitor to create St Lucia Distillers in the Roseau valley where operations began officially in 1972.
St Lucia Distillers have been the only rum producer on the island since and in 1999, chose to create a more premium brand using carefully selected rums blended together from the distillery's vast portfolio of stocks. Laurie Barnard, founder Denis's grandson, officially established the Chairman's Reserve brand and oversaw its creation which quickly becoming an award winning rum range.
Distillation
The distillery has a choice of two yeast strains for fermentation and uses molasses or sugarcane juice. For distillation, they can use a two column Coffey still, or one of three unique pot stills. Two were manufactured by John Dore, the first a small 450 litre double retort pot still and the second, a 6000 litre double retort. There is also a hybrid pot still with rectification plates inside the neck which was manufactured by Kentucky coppersmiths Vendome. In total, the distillery can make eight variations of spirit all of these can then either be aged or used unaged.
Chairman's Reserve
The Chairman's Reserve range utiises this vast range of rum styles and blends styles together to create nuanced St Lucia character. The White rum uses three to four year old rums distilled in pot and columns before a final blending and filtering of colour. The Original is a combination of pot and column rums, matured serperately in ex-bourbon casks and ultimately blended together before a final rest in oak vats for six months.