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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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

Well, I am usually sharing my travels on Facebook, so best is to come out and meet for a drink wherever I am.