Rum Connoisseur
Interview of The Week:

GARETH NOBLE
Director at Pirate’s Grog Rum

 

1. Who is Gareth Noble?

I’m a renegade pirate, hailing from mighty Yorkshire. I love to travel and often find myself in far flung places that used to be home to pirates many years ago. I recently visited Île Sainte-Marie off the coast of Madagascar, which is home to the only pirate graveyard in the world. I’m also writing this whilst in Jamaica, probably the most famous pirate island in the world! Other than that, I love surfing, so when I’m not working, you can usually find me at a beach. And obviously I’m a big fan of rum.

 

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

We launched Pirate’s Grog in the UK, as we felt the rum offering was limited and the market was dominated by the large well-known brands. We wanted to bring quality golden rum to the forefront and show people how diverse the rum category can be. Over the past 5-6 years people have become much more interested and educated about rum and I like to think that this change is, in part, due to boutique brands like ourselves touring the UK and speaking directly to consumers, offering tastings and showing how delicious premium aged rum is.

 

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

I fell in love with rum after travelling Central America and enjoying all the great rums from Guatemala, Nicaragua, Panama, etc. Then in 2011 I was living on Roatan, a small island off the coast of Honduras, and I met Robert van der Weg, aka The Dutch Pirate, who was making rum on the island. That’s when it really sparked my interest and I felt like people in the UK weren’t being exposed to these quality rums and decided to partner with Robert to launch Pirate’s Grog in the UK.

 

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

It’s a really great industry to work in, as everyone is friendly and supportive of emerging brands. Although, it can be really tough as you’re up against some of the biggest brands in the world and when you’ve started the business with nothing, it certainly makes the journey that little bit harder. That being said, the main drive to continue on, is that I really believe in our brand and products, we have won awards in The World Rum Awards, IWSC, Great Taste, Spirit Masters for both the taste and design of each expression under the Pirate’s Grog brand (there’s 4 rums in total – Five Year, No.13, Spiced and the Black Ei8ht Coffee Rum).

 

5. Favorite Drink + Recipe

Hmm, that’s a tough one as we have a lot of signature serves created especially for the Pirate’s Grog Rum Bar, which travels around festivals and events across the UK, but if I had to pick one, it would probably be our 13 year aged rum on ice (Pirate’s Grog No.13). Natural, pure and simple, you can’t beat great rum, straight up!

 

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

It’s certainly booming at the moment, so I expect to see many more brands entering the market over the next five years, although these will predominantly be unaged or low aged rum with high sugar content. This is one reason why Pirate’s Grog has a great foothold in the market with natural barrel aged rum. Consumer demand is growing significantly as people are much more inclined to explore new products, than they were previously, so it’s an exciting time for the industry.

 

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

I think it’s already happening. Three of our rums retail at around £30 and one at £80, when we entered the market these prices were seen as quite high by some, however these days they are very competitive, especially when valuing the quality of the liquid for that price.

 

8. Which rum would you recommend a person that:

• Sipping premium rum for the 1st time: Pirate’s Grog Spiced. It’s has a subtle sweetness from the spices added so it makes it very easy to sip neat. We sample this rum to thousands of people at events and almost everyone falls in love with it, especially those who are new to enjoying premium rum neat.

• Likes Scotch Whisky: Pirate’s Grog No.13. So many whiskey drinkers fall for this rum. It’s depth of flavor after being aged for 13 years is comparable to that of a premium aged whiskey.

• Likes Bourbon: Pirate’s Grog Five Year – this has just won Gold in the Spirits Masters. It’s aged in bourbon barrels and is incredibly smooth with notes of butterscotch, raisin and vanilla but it’s completely natural and straight form the barrel so great for bourbon drinkers.

• Likes Gin or Vodka: Flor De Caña Extra Dry. Hailing from Nicaragua, this is one of my favorite brands, although I drink this version very often, it does make a great Daiquiri, which is probably the rum equivalent of a G&T!

• Likes Cognac – Last year I was in Madagascar and had the pleasure of trying a brand I had never heard of called Dzama. They produce an eight year rum aged in Cognac barrels and it really captured the sweetness of the Cognac from the cask, so of course I had to bring a couple of bottles back with me for the rest of the crew to enjoy!

 

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

When we began this journey in the UK, we had help from the Prince’s Trust, and we were assigned a mentor, Simon Dawkins, who is still by our side helping us out 5 years later! He grew up in Trinidad and so is passionate about rum, combined with his financial background and business knowledge he’s been a massive help.

In more recent times we have also been working closely with Tom Allerton, previously the FD for Deliciously Ella. He has been helping us with forecasting and mapping out where the business is going over the next 5 years, and helping us to analyse our strengths and weaknesses.

It’s really important to have a decent support network when you’re growing a business and great mentors are not always easy to come by, so the strength of the management team is also really important, and I’m lucky to have two great managers (Beth Jones and Ferdi Menesez) alongside me to thrash out ideas with.

 

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

We’re in the process of signing for a site to host one of London’s first ever dedicated rum distilleries, which will also be the home of the Pirate’s Grog Rum Bar. As well as distilling new flavours and manufacturing all existing Pirate’s Grog product there, we will be looking at hosting tours, masterclasses and numerous musical events with a focus on bringing great reggae artists to London.

The above will probably keep us all very busy for the next 12 months but in addition we are also looking at launching Pirate’s Grog into 5 new territories, including Canada, Finland, Singapore, the STANs and Russia.

 

11. Any last words?

Sure, we’d like to offer a discount for anyone interested in trying Pirate’s Grog after reading this, so to claim 15% off simply visit www.piratesgrogrum.com and enter the code RUMLAB15

 

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

You can find out more or purchase any of our products including the gift sets at www.piratesgrogrum.com or join us on social media:

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PiratesGrogRum

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/piratesgrog/