Rum Connoisseur

Interview Of the Week

ERIK VONK

Propietor Richland Estate Sugar Cane Plantation and Rum Distillery

1. Who is Erik Vonk?

I am a Rum farmer! Born in Indonesia in 1953, raised and educated in Holland, and immigrated into the US in 1979. Second, I am an entrepreneur; I have had the privilege of starting three very successful businesses, but all three are unrelated to Rum! However, over the last 20+ years, adjacent to a very dynamic and all-absorbing business life of building enterprises, the sugarcane farm and the Rum distillery have always been there as a long, ongoing, stable foundation of continuity and tranquility underneath all other flurries of activities. Both have served as a source of inspiration and entrepreneurial creativity. A true example of a relaxing hobby that (inadvertently) turned into a business twenty years ago.

 

2. Biggest achievement you personally feel you have accomplished for the rum industry.

Bringing back authenticity in making Rum. Creating a brand without a ‘story’. Richland Rum’s story is to have no story, just information about how it is crafted. This enables the consumer, if they like the taste, of course, to understand how Richland Rum’s aroma profile has been created by managing natural processes. After 20 years, with distribution in 15 States and exports to 15 countries, Richland Rum is becoming a brand with ‘authenticity’ as its ethos.

 

3. What made you fall in love with rum and when did it happen?

My grandfather – my mom’s dad in Holland – was a Rum connoisseur who had a significant collection of Rums from all over the world, including Africa and Asia. All of them were made directly from unrefined sugar cane. In other words, he had no molasses-based Rums. ‘Most Rum is distilled waste’ he would tell me as an impressionable teenager, while waving his finger, referring to molasses Rums. Over the years, grandpa taught me a lot about what he called ‘authentic’ Rums. In his dictionary, ‘authentic’ meant ‘agriculturally’ as in ‘made directly from unrefined sugarcane’, cultivated specifically for the purpose of making Rum and without the use of any additives, including sugar. He found the French definition of ‘Agricole’ too narrow and too self-serving for the French Caribbean, as it excludes using condensed sugarcane juice – syrup – by producers of seasonally harvested sugarcane. It’s been grandpa’s inspiration that has left a lingering desire to find an opportunity in my life to grow sugarcane and make Rum. The opportunity to acquire land, start growing sugarcane and craft Rum presented itself in the mid-1990s. That is what has led to the establishment of the Richland Distilling Company – the producer of Richland Rum – in 1999, this year twenty years ago!!

 

4. What is that thing that makes you want to continue in the rum industry?

My biggest motivator is the fact that Mother Nature allows you to create a masterpiece with very little human intervention. Cultivating sugarcane, fermentation, distillation and aging are all-natural processes. Harvesting and crushing sugarcane stalks and applying heat – to condense juice to syrup and to separate the spirit from the wine during distillation – is as far as real human intervention goes. When done properly, no chemistry and no additives are needed. Sugarcane juice and water are all that is required. Peripheral requisites are terroir, yeast and oak.

My second biggest motivator is our farm – Richland Estate – in South Georgia. Cultivating a beautiful crop likes sugarcane – solely for the purpose of making Rum – while living at the farm AND operating a Distillery has been immensely gratifying. In addition, Richland Estate is a Nature Preserve. Several hundred acres are dedicated to cultivating sugarcane and another few hundred acre to other crops such as peanuts and cotton. Plus, a significant area serves as a sanctuary for 20 rescued wild Mustangs. Most of the land is protected by a conservation easement and can never be developed.

In short: I love what I am doing!  

5. Favorite Drink + Recipe

That’s a funny question! I wouldn’t dream of anything but 2 ounces of Richland Single Estate Old South Georgia Rum with a single cube of ice – made from spring water.

 

6. Where do you see the rum industry today and in the next 5 years?

Worldwide, people are getting more interested in educating themselves about what they consume. Producers of any consumable, including Rum, need to respond. While the Rum industry today is still steeped in conventions of using metaphors, imaginary associations and fantasy inducing historic links as primary motivators to induce consumption, it will be forced more and more, in the foreseeable future, to use transparency, factual product insight and consumer education as brand drivers.

 

7. What do you think needs to happen to grow the premium category of rum?

The fact that Premium Rums are arguably under-recognized is, in my humble opinion, a direct result of the fact that the industry has worked hard to put blinders on the consumer. As a result, Rum, as a category, still has a somewhat negative reputation as a cheap, hangover inducing spirit. However, as noted above, strong societal trends in favor of transparency and fact-based consumer information allow producers of premium Rums to educate consumers about the distinguishing qualities of their products

 

8. Which rum would you recommend a person that:

– Sipping premium rum for the 1st time: Single Estate Old South Georgia Rum – our ‘Classic’. Just add I cube of ice, made from premium water;

– Likes Scotch Whisky: Richland Rum’s Terrapin Double IPA Cask Exchange – we empty a Rum barrel after 3 years, store the Rum in a new, virgin barrel, allow Terrapin Beer to age their Double IPA in our barrel for 18 months, after we refill it with its own, original content and let it rest for one more year. Thin, hoppy, creamy notes over oak, tobacco, roasted almonds, walnut, burnt sugar and remote hints of anise.

 – Likes Bourbon: Richland Rum’s Chateau Elan Port Cask Exchange – we empty a Rum barrel after 3 years, store the Rum in a new, virgin barrel, allow the Chateau Elan Winery to age their Port Wine in our barrel for 12 months, after we refill it with its own, original content and let it rest for one more year. Notes of red fruit and field flowers over oak, caramel, vanilla, coffee, leather, figs and tobacco.

– Likes Gin or Vodka: Richland Rum’s Virgin Coastal Georgia Rum – this Rum rested for just 60 days in a toasted only barrel. Clear, crisp, dry vegetal, grassy, sugarcane notes. Serve over ice, with a splash of fresh lime juice, OR a splash of fresh lemon juice OR a splash of fresh grapefruit juice. Stir with 1 drop of Richland Almost Rum fresh sugar cane syrup.

– Likes Cognac: Single Estate Old South Georgia Rum – our ‘Classic’ – bottled at Cask Strength, usually 105 to 125 Proofs. Recognized as ‘Best American Rum’ by Forbes Magazine! Enjoy neat!

 

9. Share some (2-3) of your mentors and how they have helped you

First, my grandfather, of course!  He’s been my inspiration. Further, I also admire experienced producers who are on a purity crusade, like Richard Seale, and I applaud knowledgeable fact finders, like Best Selling Whiskey and Rum author Fred Minnick. Richard and Fred not only KNOW what they are talking about, but they discuss facts without value judgements. They provide valuable information to the consumer. Molasses Rums can be excellent, and Rums laced with sugar can please discerning pallets, but the consumer deserves to know the facts.

 

10. What 3-5 things do you have in your bucket list for the next 12 months?

I have only one: to complete the refit of my boat, the ‘Spirit of Georgia’. She is a 145’ former fishing trawler undergoing maintenance and repair work at the shipyard where she was built in Holland. Work should be ready in the summer of 2020, with a transatlantic crossing planned for the fall. During the winter of 2020 she will be docked within walking distance from our Distillery in Brunswick, GA and will be available for Rum Tastings!!

 

11. Any last words?

Yes – marvelous publication!! Keep up the great work!

 

12. How can people learn more about you? Website? Social Media Page?

Website: www.richlandrum.com Facebook: www.facebook.com/richlandrum Instagram: www.instagram.com/richland_rum Twitter: www.twitter.com/Richland_Rum Tripadvisor: Richland Rum