Rum Connoisseur Interview of The Week GUILLAUME LAMY Maison Ferrand USA Vice President
Rum Connoisseur
Interview of The Week
GUILLAUME LAMY
Maison Ferrand USA Vice President
1. Who is Guillaume Lamy?
I have been working for Maison Ferrand for 20 years, always trying to push the envelope a little further in the world of spirits, building Maison Ferrand in the Americas, bottle by bottle, educating myself constantly before I pretend to educate anybody else, giving my team more than I would want for myself, hoping to see them succeed beyond their wildest expectations. Today I am proud to be surrounded by some of the best professionals in the business, gaining new grounds every day.
2. Biggest achievement you personally feel you have accomplish for the rum industry.
Convince people that white rum can have a lot of taste, not just something white that gives strength to a mixer. Plantation 3 Stars is slowly but surely grooming the idea in consumers minds that good white rum actually has to taste like cane.
3. What made you fall in love with rum and when did it happen?
Well beyond its diversity of taste and culture, I was always impressed by how omnipresent Rum is as a spirit all over the world. Very few spirits can claim such popularity, everybody knows rum and understands that it is made from sugar cane. The vegetal, the organics of the cane also gave me a lot of satisfaction. Being a Cognac guy, I was kind of stuck in grapes, tasting that grassier “gourmandise” was more than exotic, it was mind opening.
4. What is that thing that makes you want to continue in the rum industry?
The fact that the end of our mission is not even in sight, the journey for Plantation Rum just began, we still have some many things to do, so many things to learn from the Rum world. We are just starting to understand it, and even more now that we just became the owners of West Indies Rum Distillery in Barbados and part owner of Long Pond & Clarendon distilleries in Jamaica.
Being in the Rum business for the past 15 years, these last 12 months have been so far the most exciting of the entire journey: working with our Barbados family at West Indies and the Jamaican teams at Long Pond an Clarendon is extremely rewarding.
5. Favourite Drink + Recipe
Jungle Bird, don’t ask me to make one, I just drink it (way to fast), I suggest you ask Adrienne Stoner for the recipe, you can bet your money that you will like hers! I know that it works very well with Plantation O.F.T.D. , that I know too well!
6. Where do you see the rum industry today and in the next 5 years?
I see it more like the way the whisky industry is today. More information on different styles and different origins, associations of consumers doing trips to distillery just to taste it from the still, getting to know the producers. There will be more personal relationships between the consumer and the world of rum. This will be a logical development to all the work that Plantation but also a lot of other great producers have done for many years.
7. What do you think needs to happen to grow the premium category of rum?
Keep on educating on a broad spectrum, not just what you know but also bring others that do not produce your style of rum in the conversation, so that consumers see Rum as a category that as much to offer, for a lot of different tastes, only then I believe that we will be able to build premiumization at a bigger scale.
8. Which rum would you recommend a person that:
a. Sipping a premium rum for the 1st time
Plantation 5 Year, this is our Barbados blend made of aged rums, double aged in Barbados and in Cognac. This Rum is very approachable for a first time rum drinker.
b. Likes Scotch Whisky
I would recommend a Rum that is made from longer fermentations and has been aged for at least 7-8 years in old Bourbon casks, a smoky, cooked vanillin flavor would be I think very satisfying for a scotch drinker. Plantation Trinidad 2003 could be such rum.
c. Likes Bourbon
10 year old rums from Barbados rums, that are a blend of pot still and column, will be very satisfying to the Bourbon drinkers. Plantation Barbados Vintage 2002 would definitely do the job!
d. Likes Gin or Vodka
A lighter rum with grassier notes, a Gin drinker I think would love agricole style rums at a higher proof, Rhum JM White Rum at 50% for example, for a vodka drinker, a much lighter rum, that shows almost no heavy notes at 40% alc.
e. Likes Cognac
Any Rum with fruity notes that has been aged in French oak would do the trick, I am thinking about a lighter Jamaican style that would spend time in Cognac casks. We have one of these coming out…
9. Share some (2-3) of your mentors and how they have help you.
Alexandre Gabriel, he is just the guy who always believed in me and still today keeps on educating me on spirits, not only in the making of it, but also in communicating the passion to those who enjoy the great things of life. He is kind of philosopher that likes to cook for the rest of the village. Always liked that in him.
My Dad who always had that great sense of mixing artistry and business. Behind every stage or entertainment job, there are hours of rehearsals and planning that require tons of discipline.
10. What 3-5 things do you have in your bucket list for the next 12 month?
Really, 12 months? I don’t plan on dying that soon..
Bathing in the muck pit at Long Pond, see if it will make me feel younger.
Tasting new, revived distillates from some of the beautiful apparatus that are standing at West Indies Rum since the end of the 19th century
11. Any last words?
Drink to taste, not to think.
12. How can people learn more about you? Website? Social Media Page?
