Holmes Cay is an independent bottling company from New York City. Founded by New Yorker rum aficionado Eric Kaye in 2019, they focus on finding the very best rums and bottling them at cask strength. Kaye used to work as a producer and music composer for film, TV, and commercials, but has also been an avid diver for decades. His favorite pastime brought him into contact with fantastic rare Caribbean rums. He felt he needed to share these with his fellow Americans, which is how Holmes Cay came to be. Passionately standing behind the tradition and honor that is an integral part of rum, Kaye hopes to bring incredible as-of-yet-unknown unadulterated cask-strength rums to the US, introducing spirit-lovers to the best-kept secrets of the rum world. Their very first release Holmes Cay Barbados 2005 fittingly came from the legendary Foursquare Distillery in Barbados. The Holmes Cay Fiji Single Cask Rum was distilled in 2004 at the South Pacific Distilleries of Fiji. The 16-year-old pot-still rum was matured tropically in an ex-bourbon barrel for 12 years, then 4 years in the UK in an American oak cask, then bottled in 2020 at 116 proof without chill filtering. The cask yielded 240 bottles of this premium unadulterated rum.

Holmes Cay is an independent bottling company from New York City. Founded by New Yorker rum aficionado Eric Kaye in 2019, they focus on finding the very best rums and bottling them at cask strength. Kaye used to work as a producer and music composer for film, TV, and commercials, but has also been an avid diver for decades. His favorite pastime brought him into contact with fantastic rare Caribbean rums. He felt he needed to share these with his fellow Americans, which is how Holmes Cay came to be. Passionately standing behind the tradition and honor that is an integral part of rum, Kaye hopes to bring incredible as-of-yet-unknown unadulterated cask-strength rums to the US, introducing spirit-lovers to the best-kept secrets of the rum world. Their very first release Holmes Cay Barbados 2005 fittingly came from the legendary Foursquare Distillery in Barbados. The Holmes Cay Guyana Single Cask expression is a premium Caribbean rum that was distilled in 2005 in Guyana at Demerara Distillers. This 15-year-old pot-still rum was matured in the UK in an American oak recycled rum cask.

Holmes Cay is an independent bottling company from New York City. Founded by New Yorker rum aficionado Eric Kaye in 2019, they focus on finding the very best rums and bottling them at cask strength. Kaye used to work as a producer and music composer for film, TV, and commercials, but has also been an avid diver for decades. His favorite pastime brought him into contact with fantastic rare Caribbean rums. He felt he needed to share these with his fellow Americans, which is how Holmes Cay came to be. Passionately standing behind the tradition and honor that is an integral part of rum, Kaye hopes to bring incredible as-of-yet-unknown unadulterated cask-strength rums to the US, introducing spirit-lovers to the best-kept secrets of the rum world. Their very first release Holmes Cay Barbados 2005 fittingly came from the legendary Foursquare Distillery in Barbados. Holmes Cay Belize 2005 follows in the footsteps of their recent releases of Barbados, Fiji, and Guyana rum. Crafted in collaboration with Travellers Liquors Distillery of Belize it's a 100% tropically-aged column-still rum that has spent 15 years in ex-bourbon barrels. Distilled in 2005 and bottled in 2020 at cask strength, this 122-proof rum has no sugar, color, or flavoring added. 4 casks of this rum were produced in total. 

Holmes Cay is an independent bottling company from New York City. Founded by New Yorker rum aficionado Eric Kaye in 2019, they focus on finding the very best rums and bottling them at cask strength. Kaye used to work as a producer and music composer for film, TV, and commercials, but has also been an avid diver for decades. His favorite pastime brought him into contact with fantastic rare Caribbean rums. He felt he needed to share these with his fellow Americans, which is how Holmes Cay came to be. Passionately standing behind the tradition and honor that is an integral part of rum, Kaye hopes to bring incredible as-of-yet-unknown unadulterated cask-strength rums to the US, introducing spirit-lovers to the best-kept secrets of the rum world. Their very first release Holmes Cay Barbados 2005 fittingly came from the legendary Foursquare Distillery in Barbados. The Holmes Cay Barbados 2009 Port Cask Rum is another one from their fruitful collaboration with Foursquare. "The Barbados 2009 Port Cask is our first edition with secondary maturation. The secondary aging complements and highlights the existing character of the spirit," says Kaye. Distilled in 2009, it's a blend of column and pot-still rum that was aged 8 years in Barbados, then 2 years in the UK in ex-bourbon barrels, before being finished in port casks for another year in New York State. Bottled at 112 proof, only 2 casks of this 11-year-old cask-strength rum were produced. 

The Holmes Cay Uitvlugt 2003 edition was distilled on a historic French 4-column Savalle column still. Originally located in the legendary Uitvlugt Estate (pronounced “eye-flot”), the still can now be found at Diamond Distillery, Guyana, under the management (along with all other rum in Guyana) of Demerara Distillers Limited. Aged two years tropically in Guyana and 16 years in the UK, and bottled in New York State. No sugar, no (additional) color, and no other flavors were added in the making of this rum. Bottled at barrel proof, 51% alcohol by volume. Four casks, just 858 bottles are available. 

With golden honey and a whiff of brine on the nose, the palate starts out with overripe tropical fruits, then continues with hints of almond, herbs and a touch of cocoa. Light tobacco lingers on the finish.

Clarendon distillery is one of the Caribbean’s newer rum factories, built back in 1949. Back then, it was a small operation, running a single pot still produced by legendary Louisville, Kentucky coppersmiths, Vendome. Today it is joined by a second, larger pot still of Indian manufacture, a modern five-column still, both installed in 2009. Operating between January and October each year, the distillery produces around 12 million litres of alcohol each year. Clarendon is technically two distilling operations in one. National Rums of Jamaica has a 73% share, with the remaining 23% owned by their biggest customer, Diageo, who end up taking 90% of Clarendon’s total output for their Captain Morgan and Myers’s brands.

The terms Wedderburn and Vale Royal are both fairly obscure, though both are used to refer to specific, high ester rums particular to Jamaica. Wedderburn rum was a classification of heavy rum that would usually be used to give weight and flavour to blended rums - much like malt or peated whisky in blends - and is rarely seen unblended. Wedderburn rums are identified by an ester count of 200/300 gr/hlpa. The popular Jamaica rum Smith and Cross, for example, is a blend of Wedderburn, mellowed out with milder Plummer style rum. 

This was distilled in 2011 and aged for 10 years in ex-Bourbon casks before being bottled by US based independent bottler Holmes Cay.