The History of Rum in Bermuda

Lorraine McKiniry: Charles, when did your family first come to Bermuda? Charles Gosling: In 1806. Lorraine McKiniry: And what was their condition under which they arrive? Charles Gosling: They’ve been at the sea for around about a 120 days. They were on their way over to the Americas and they were stuck in the convoys. They had issues and —in the wind and they finally arrive to Bermuda the early part of August in 1806. Kind of like most tourist visits a little —here, and what opportunity is there were but after having been at sea for a that length of time, their charter run out, they have no choice but to actually settle in Bermuda. Lorraine McKiniry: How then did it evolved into a rum business here in Bermuda? Charles Gosling: Wine and Spirits were a very strong part of it and being the sort of Northern bit of a Caribbean, we’re actually proud of saying that we’re probably Caribbean, but everyone thinks we really are, so we are. And the Caribbean it is known for its rum and we have a very good contact with the British Caribbean. The major rum producers, Diana, Jamaica are our greatest, and it just became natural that we would be sort of providing rum. We like to consider ourselves a little bit like cognac or bottler or a whisky maker. They might not necessarily own the distillers, but it is through the way that they make their blend or being mixed which is distinctive and with our rums, we feel we have something very distinctive. Andrew Holmes: Welcome to our blending facility where we put together all the different components that make up our world famous scotch and blends. This is the batch of Black Seal that’s just been finish and ready for bottling. We have to have a smell of this. Lorraine McKiniry: That’s smells so good. Andrew Holmes: Delicious. Now one-step final blend is being completed, some will go into bottles and the sold out as Gosling’s Blacks Rum, others will go into the barrels and was aged for the Gosling’s family reserved old rum. Charles Gosling: It’s Gosling Black Seal Rum that is a dark rum, a black rum originally just on draft. People will bring their own bottles and ask for the old rum as a reserve for them. Then finally, we were able to get a second hand bottles from the UK officers masses and those were champagne bottles and they were corked and in order to differentiate between the different products, they used different colors sealing wax. Green sealing was American whisky, black sealing wax was the old rum and eventually people started rather than asking for the old rum giving that Black Seal there. And a customer of ours Sir Francis Gosling who back in the 1940’s actually came out with a logo that of a Black Seal balancing the barreled aroma mix of those. Andrew Holmes: This is our Gosling’s family reserve old drum. It’s a premium sipping rum that was first bottle in 2003. We bottled it once year only and its aged 16 to 20 years in this ones use bourbon barrels. Lorraine McKiniry: So this the premium rum? Andrew Holmes: This is the finest money can buy. Charles Gosling: The one that you I would hope would have heard of is a dark’s stormy which is Gosling’s Black Seal Rum and Ginger Beer. And that is so we believe the Royal Navy the connection. The Royal Navy use to serve a morning talk of Black Seal. Locally, the HMS Malabar which was the local Royal Navy Base, there was a non-commissioned officer’s — that had a Ginger Beer factory. And they used to produce Ginger Beer as a fund riser for the —, and it really doesn’t take too much of anthropologist to actually fill up with the conclusion that sometime, somewhere someone took their morning talk and the Ginger Beer made a very refreshing cocktail. Lorraine McKiniry: That is the spirit of Bermuda.