Rhum Barbancourt , one of the world’s premier rums, is the only Haitian rum to penetrate international spirits markets. Founded in 1862 by Dupré Barbancourt, a Frenchman who migrated to Haiti, Rhum Barbancourt is among the Caribbean’s oldest rum distilleries.
Haiti occupies the western third of the island of Hispaniola, colonized by French settlers in the 1650s and ceded by Spain to France in 1697. In the eighteenth century, French sugar planters in Saint-Domingue, as the colony was known, produced enormous amounts of sugar, which left a lot of molasses available for rum distilling. However, in 1713, French wine and brandy interests had successfully petitioned to close metropolitan markets to French Caribbean rum, thus stifling the development of rum distilling in Saint-Domingue. What rum was produced on sugar estates was given to enslaved workers as part of their weekly rations. In 1791, enslaved peoples and free people of color in Saint-Domingue rose up against French colonial rule and by 1804 had established the independent nation of Haiti.
cognac. It is possible that Barbancourt perfected his distilling skills in France and brought them Haiti where he applied them to rum making. His arrival in Haiti coincides with the oidium and phylloxera blights, which devastated grape vineyards in France. Harsh import duties on French Caribbean rum were suspended to help meet the dwindling availability of spirits. Perhaps Barbancourt sought to capitalize on the devastation of French vineyards by making rum for the French market. By 1900, he was the leading distiller in the country (just edging out Sèneque Pierre), and his rhum, based on sugar-cane juice, as was universal in Haiti, had won several international awards.In the mid-twentieth century, distillers at Barbancourt refined their product and continued winning awards. Yet political upheaval and environmental disasters challenged the success of the company. In 1991, the United Nations imposed a trade embargo that sought to end the military coup that led to the ouster of democratically elected president Jean-Bertrand Aristide. The embargo closed markets to Barbancourt rum, including its largest market in the United States. On January 12, 2010, Haiti was rocked by a devastating earthquake. The storehouse at Rhum Barbancourt suffered serious damage. As much as 30 percent of its stores were damaged, including rums that had been aging for fifteen years. Despite these setbacks, Rhum Barbancourt has remained a strong competitor in the world rum market. Its fifteen-year-old Réserve du domaine is considered one of the finest rums, comparable to the finest cognac. Rhum Barbancourt remains the most internationally recognized rum of Haiti.
Simpson, J. Montague. Six months in Port au Prince. Philadelphia: G. S. Ferguson, 1905.
Smith, Frederick H. Caribbean Rum: A Social and Economic History. Gainesville: University Press of Florida, 2005.
By: Frederick H. Smith