Marketing works...
It sure did for me. Before I came to know and understand the deception commonplace in rums, I was a huge fan of DDL and their 200 year old wooden stills. And back then their rums were among the best. Their marketing department was the best - as a former marketing man myself I recognize true talent. The story they told was of tradition, history, and the romance of not only old pot stills, but wooden at that!
And 200 years old!
Even the pictures of their rotting, rusting, leaking, patchwork and decrepit operations were not offputting. Like all great marketers they turned rotting lemons into lemonade. My god, we exclaimed. Not only do those old stills work, they produce great rum. But things started to fall apart in late 2012 and early 2013 when Carl Kanto - their master distiller - began to speak out and express his fears of the billion dollar subsidies. He even signed our Save Caribbean Rum petition along with Dave Broom, Davin de Kergommeaux and others whom we all respect (or should).
BTW have YOU signed? If you haven't take a minute (link in red below) and return.
Then more recently the Swedish and Finnish Sugar tests became available confirming not just the addition of a touch of sugar, but massive amounts, up to 45 grams. This is broaching liqueur territory! This was far beyond a "touch" of sugar to please the American market; no, this was a serious addition that can be assumed to cover up some serious changes in the base product. This was no news to JaRiMi who'd noticed significant changes in the quality two years ago.
I'd also become aware that DDL is a major supplier of bulk rums and had become rather dependent on sales to big buyers (guess who). Later I read of a planned new multi-column installation. Compare to an independent businessman who receives a large order from Walmart. As a result he is forced to expand his facilities, fills the order and gets a larger one. At this point Walmart will demand that he move his operations to China to further increase his volume and lower his costs.
They have been captured without a fight. So how do those deteriorating stills look to you now?
Divorce - and romance lost...
Let's start with the premise "200 year old wooden stills" saved from oblivion by the wonderful folks at DDL. Our heroes! We're in love right. But now in the light of day, things look and really are different...
1. Few anymore buy the "200 year" part, but some monkeys really did. DDL never talked about their 10% a year replacement of the wood or the real average age, about 10 years. Not 200 years old.
2. Now as for the "wooden" part. Are they? Only in theory. These "stills" (we'll get to that) are not the wood we all thought they were, namely oak. The thought that they were oak gives credence to the notions that all that lovely residue somehow enters the vapor and voila! Two hundred years of yummy complex stuff is reflected in the rum. It's like rum aged in an oak cask, right?
Wrong. First of all it's not oak, but a South American hardwood (evergreen family) that is extremely hard, extremely dense (won't even float), and known for being waterproof and bug/mold/rot proof. It's major use? Docks and piling in salt water marine environments. Unlike oak, it absorbs and retains nothing. There is no residue to pass along. Even if the "stills" were made of oak, the few hours the wash spends in them is hardly time to absorb or exchange anything.
Actually thats the idea. "Residue" is actually very nasty stuff (ask da'rum). A distiller doesn't want ANY residue to contaminate the product. In Scotland the stills are designed to minimize residue and they are cleaned meticulously on a regular schedule for that reason. The residue notion is a myth. Not to mention that the whole idea of distillation is to extract alcohol and leave behind that which is not alcohol - ie residue.
So. Not really made of wood as promoted.
3. "Still". Aha! This is the real corker (pun intended). Although the Port Mourant and Versailles stills are heavily promoted as "pot stills", are they really?
No. In both cases the vapors are passed to a retort (secondary distillation device) and this will kill your woodie - to a tall single column "rectifier" which is nothing more than a column still like any other. In the case of the Versailles "pot still", the dock wood tank is really acting as nothing more than a boiler providing vapor to the retort/column setup where the real distillation is taking place. The Port Mourant is only marginally better, but still the real distillation is by the retort/column.
It is completely fair to call their product column-stilled rum. A view of the rough warehouse facility shows just how complex this set-up is. Despite the fact that good rums can be had from such a column, the product in no way can or should be called a "pot-stilled" rum. To wit:
A "pot-stilled rum" is the product of two or more runs in yup, simple pot stills. The first run is done in a large pot called the "wash still" at high speed with minimal separation. The second and usually final run in a smaller pot still where the "heart" is captured/extracted to become the "pot-stilled" rum most of us treasure. In Jamaica the classic setup became a pot still with two retorts. But no columns, no rectifiers, no plates, no computer controls, minimal reflux - you get the picture.
Thus: not a pot still.
Flat Ass Bottom Line
It's time to put this amazing marketing myth to rest. DDL is a bulk supplier entrapped by its demanding customers, producing column stilled product. Sadly, they have even abandoned their own El Dorado rums. And as far as their "200 year old wooden pot stills", this descriptor is vastly overstated. While these romantic devices could indeed be used as stand alone pot stills, they are not.
Last, when massive amounts of sugar are added something is very, very wrong. Kanto knows. To believe that the alteration will stop with color and sugar may be naive. Time will tell...
Dense Dept: the myth of DDL's Wooden Stills
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Capn Jimbo
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Dense Dept: the myth of DDL's Wooden Stills
Last edited by Capn Jimbo on Sun Apr 20, 2014 11:46 am, edited 1 time in total.
i do like that post, and if i can choose a word to summarise, it'll be 'bulk'. Of course its all about marketing, but any responsible consumer should search for more information (when they are ineterested)
anytime i go to the supermarket i know there' will be lies everywhere, on each products sold. It's just the same with rums, DDL and its ED or any other distilleries. consumers need to be educated and that kind of post should be shared to the world (even if its just about DDL here).
and if you are looking for a nice/decent rum, save your money and look at the independant bottlers ; you can find hundreds of demerara rums (from DDL) from french savalle still, colum, metal coffey still, double pot still, wooden coffey still,...
As a bulk seller, i would say DDL is really interesting because they produced hundreds marks (depends of the demand), many of them from the same still, and when you happen to know this mark (independant bottlers again) you can compare rums between them which is really interesting, or just to taste different style/mark made from the same still. Let the ED rums for the supermarkets, its cocacola for kids
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Capn's Log: you are confusing the limited rums made from perhaps 9 or 13 remaining old stills, only a few of which are still actively used, with "marks". "Marks" refers to the 200 or so different historical plantations/distilleries that once existed. Each placed its own "mark" (like a cattle brand) on their barrels to identify their rums. All went out of business, and now we are down to perhaps 4 or 5 remaining stills which were saved by the DDL, and which were moved to the Diamond distillery (but retain their marks, but only as a marketing ploy). No hundreds, no more, no way.
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Cyril replies:
"I'm not confusing and I'm fully aware of what ure saying in fact. i was talking about hundreds of demeraran rums offered from the different independent bottlers. just look for their choice (demerara rums) : Cadenhead, Silver Seal, Samaroli, velier just to name few, you've got hundreds of rums coming from DDL and the few remaining stills (of course).
And the marks do not just refer to the old plantation (back in the days : yes! and it was helpful to search for a cask among others), since there's still marks created these days; its not that true anymore (but it used to be)."
anytime i go to the supermarket i know there' will be lies everywhere, on each products sold. It's just the same with rums, DDL and its ED or any other distilleries. consumers need to be educated and that kind of post should be shared to the world (even if its just about DDL here).
and if you are looking for a nice/decent rum, save your money and look at the independant bottlers ; you can find hundreds of demerara rums (from DDL) from french savalle still, colum, metal coffey still, double pot still, wooden coffey still,...
As a bulk seller, i would say DDL is really interesting because they produced hundreds marks (depends of the demand), many of them from the same still, and when you happen to know this mark (independant bottlers again) you can compare rums between them which is really interesting, or just to taste different style/mark made from the same still. Let the ED rums for the supermarkets, its cocacola for kids
*******
Capn's Log: you are confusing the limited rums made from perhaps 9 or 13 remaining old stills, only a few of which are still actively used, with "marks". "Marks" refers to the 200 or so different historical plantations/distilleries that once existed. Each placed its own "mark" (like a cattle brand) on their barrels to identify their rums. All went out of business, and now we are down to perhaps 4 or 5 remaining stills which were saved by the DDL, and which were moved to the Diamond distillery (but retain their marks, but only as a marketing ploy). No hundreds, no more, no way.
*******
Cyril replies:
"I'm not confusing and I'm fully aware of what ure saying in fact. i was talking about hundreds of demeraran rums offered from the different independent bottlers. just look for their choice (demerara rums) : Cadenhead, Silver Seal, Samaroli, velier just to name few, you've got hundreds of rums coming from DDL and the few remaining stills (of course).
And the marks do not just refer to the old plantation (back in the days : yes! and it was helpful to search for a cask among others), since there's still marks created these days; its not that true anymore (but it used to be)."
Last edited by cyril on Tue Apr 22, 2014 2:34 am, edited 1 time in total.
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Capn Jimbo
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Bulk is right...
DDL's major accomplishment of recent times is the building and operation of a massive, tall, outdoor, industrial five column behemoth that can (and does) produce 15,000 gallons a day of bulk rum. Rum - boldly marked "Bulk Rum" on the sides of the long, large shipping tanks - are on display. They have over 100,000 barrels of rum in various warehouses. As a bulk supplier, you might want to guess who their major customers are, and you would be right.
They are completely dependent on these bulk buyers and under Walmart like pressure have been forced to cut and cut and cut - costs, not rum. As a result, they have been forced to downgrade their own El Dorado products, no doubt under the guidance of visiting taste engineers.
Poor Carl Kanto, who knows better and who has publicly lamented this dilemma.
More info:
http://www.stabroeknews.com/2010/archiv ... ion-plant/
DDL's major accomplishment of recent times is the building and operation of a massive, tall, outdoor, industrial five column behemoth that can (and does) produce 15,000 gallons a day of bulk rum. Rum - boldly marked "Bulk Rum" on the sides of the long, large shipping tanks - are on display. They have over 100,000 barrels of rum in various warehouses. As a bulk supplier, you might want to guess who their major customers are, and you would be right.
They are completely dependent on these bulk buyers and under Walmart like pressure have been forced to cut and cut and cut - costs, not rum. As a result, they have been forced to downgrade their own El Dorado products, no doubt under the guidance of visiting taste engineers.
Poor Carl Kanto, who knows better and who has publicly lamented this dilemma.
More info:
http://www.stabroeknews.com/2010/archiv ... ion-plant/
Last edited by Capn Jimbo on Sun Apr 20, 2014 9:07 am, edited 1 time in total.
My dreams and illusions have been shattered. I'll never be the same again. I'm a broken man, forever to be cynical and un-trusting. You've gone and done it now Jimbo you should be ashamed of your self destroying my fantasy in such away. I'll have to beg forgivenes From Ed and re-join MOR just to get my faith restored.
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Capn Jimbo
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Few have any idea...
Of just what a large company - dependent on bulk - DDL has become. Some quotes:
Sound familiar? It should. Just like Bacardi, the DDL hardcore marketers have likewise cut a deal with Sandals' Resorts to become the rum they serve and feature. Yet what do most rum afficianados picture? Yup, a number of heritage stills kept in the back lot in a run down garage, with the prerquisite pictures of dark skinned workers and distillers. How authentic and quaint!
Of just what a large company - dependent on bulk - DDL has become. Some quotes:
http://www.chrisram.net/?tag=demerara-d ... rs-limited"The distillery has the capacity to produce in excess of 26 M litres of pure alcohol annually, and is the largest supplier of bulk rums and alcohols from the Caribbean to brand owners in Europe and North America. The company's impressive list of clientele includes companies such as Diageo, Jim Beam Brands, Hiram Walker, Allied Distillers, and Corby's."
"Demerara Distillers Limited, a conglomerate group comprising several local and overseas companies with manufacturing, trading, banking and trust relationships in Guyana, the region, North America and Europe as well as a joint venture in India and associated companies in Guyana and Jamaica..."
"The emphasis on the sale of bulk products over branded products evident in year 2010 during which bulk sales increased by 45% while total sales increased by 10% seems quite counter-intuitive, if not illogical."
http://www.latcapitalsolutions.com/ddl2.htm"Over the past decade, Demerara Distillers Limited has been engaged in a very aggressive expansion and diversification programme. Today, the company is truly an international one, with subsidiary companies in Trinidad and Tobago, Peru, the United States and Holland. The company operates a bottling plant in St. Kitts, and has associated companies in Canada, and India.
Over the past decade, Demerara Distillers Limited has been engaged in a very aggressive expansion and diversification programme. Today, the company is truly an international one, with subsidiary companies in Trinidad and Tobago, Peru, the United States and Holland. The company operates a bottling plant in St. Kitts, and has associated companies in Canada, and India.
At home, Demerara Distillers in addition to its core operations of rum distilling, and bottling, is involved in the production of non-alcoholic beverages. In addition to the company's own flavorful brand of the SOCA soft drinks, the company holds the franchise for the production and distribution of the world famous PEPSI, SLICE and 7UP. "
Sound familiar? It should. Just like Bacardi, the DDL hardcore marketers have likewise cut a deal with Sandals' Resorts to become the rum they serve and feature. Yet what do most rum afficianados picture? Yup, a number of heritage stills kept in the back lot in a run down garage, with the prerquisite pictures of dark skinned workers and distillers. How authentic and quaint!
Once again excuse my ignorance, but for those of us with 15 and 12 year old EDs, there isn't a drop newer than that in them - meaning when I got mine, in 2012, the rum was distilled no more recently than 2000 for the 12 or 1997 for the 15, yet the 12 from that purchase still has that sugar thing going on.
Are we saying that sugar was added at bottling to hide subpar rum, and if so, that said distillate has been subpar going back that long?
Are we saying that sugar was added at bottling to hide subpar rum, and if so, that said distillate has been subpar going back that long?
Someone pissed in Hassouni's wellies (Irish joke) the light bulb just came on lol. if the sugar is added at bottling then yes the rum is subpar and it's been that way for a long time. You're absultely right on that score. I see no reason to add the sugar at barrelling but. then again I'm no expert on distilling.Hassouni wrote:Once again excuse my ignorance, but for those of us with 15 and 12 year old EDs, there isn't a drop newer than that in them - meaning when I got mine, in 2012, the rum was distilled no more recently than 2000 for the 12 or 1997 for the 15, yet the 12 from that purchase still has that sugar thing going on.
Are we saying that sugar was added at bottling to hide subpar rum, and if so, that said distillate has been subpar going back that long?
As one of the other guy's pointed out the rum minus the sugar may not be subpar/mediocre but it would deffinitely be a different rum and one in which we may not find to our liking but, since none of us have had the chance to sample ED without the sugar we'll never know this. All we can go on is what the effect of adding sugar does to a rum which is make a mediocre rum taste better than it would normally, that is the main reason for adding sugar to rum IMHO. So what conclusions can we draw from this? Maybe DDL as a distiller has been producing inferior spirit for a long time?! Maybe Jarimi is in a better position to answer this question than I. I'm just a guy who likes to buy good quality when I can afford it and I don't like to be ripped off.
Can we really compare an independent bottling to ED no, most independent bottlings are of a single barrel/rum distillation. ED range of rum is a blend or rums from different stills so it would be an unfair comparison to compare a blend to single still offerings (think blended scotch to single malt) now you see the problem. It's no different in the rum world, just the base spirit. The principals are the same.
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Capn Jimbo
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Rum is not bonded...
Ergo it is impossible to believe age statements. Remember Zacapa 23 Anos which under pressure, changed the label to "23". The only thing more abused than alteration are age statements.
Unlike some other spirits/countries rum is not bonded - anywhere. The only age statements I trust are those of Richard Seale who has been quite public about his age statements ("every drop...). Not to mention that the ED's are blends of different stills, batches and ages. For example the current ED website states the 15 is "A combination of specially selected aged rums, some as old as 25 years." As once so well pointed out by JaRiMi in a lengthy article here, what happens is that a company reduces the amount of the old, good stuff in the blend, saving it for it's super-premium bottlings.
An excellent example of this MGXO which was known to be a blend of rums from 10 to 17 years old. You can believe the 1703 remains unaltered, but the XO has changed in just a few years. The same is true of DDL.
Last, Dai has identified what I consider the elephant in the room: the massive amount of sugar that has been added has serious effects on a rum - changes that are necessary and that go far beyond a "touch". This is done for good reason and the reason should be obvious.
Ergo it is impossible to believe age statements. Remember Zacapa 23 Anos which under pressure, changed the label to "23". The only thing more abused than alteration are age statements.
Unlike some other spirits/countries rum is not bonded - anywhere. The only age statements I trust are those of Richard Seale who has been quite public about his age statements ("every drop...). Not to mention that the ED's are blends of different stills, batches and ages. For example the current ED website states the 15 is "A combination of specially selected aged rums, some as old as 25 years." As once so well pointed out by JaRiMi in a lengthy article here, what happens is that a company reduces the amount of the old, good stuff in the blend, saving it for it's super-premium bottlings.
An excellent example of this MGXO which was known to be a blend of rums from 10 to 17 years old. You can believe the 1703 remains unaltered, but the XO has changed in just a few years. The same is true of DDL.
Last, Dai has identified what I consider the elephant in the room: the massive amount of sugar that has been added has serious effects on a rum - changes that are necessary and that go far beyond a "touch". This is done for good reason and the reason should be obvious.
But is sugar added because the rum is "subpar" - or because of the popularity of Zacapa, Zaya et al? To make it more appealing to the masses? The average person would probably greatly prefer zacapa to Smith & Cross, but might like Smith & Cross better if you dump in a bunch of sugar.
Hopefully with Zacapa's reducing of added sugar by more than half, the pendulum will swing back the other way.
Hopefully with Zacapa's reducing of added sugar by more than half, the pendulum will swing back the other way.
None of us know for sure if the rum is subpar. We don't have access to ED without sugar. I suspect it is but, can't say with absolute certainty but 95% is close enough for me.NCyankee wrote:But is sugar added because the rum is "subpar" - or because of the popularity of Zacapa, Zaya et al? To make it more appealing to the masses? The average person would probably greatly prefer zacapa to Smith & Cross, but might like Smith & Cross better if you dump in a bunch of sugar.
Hopefully with Zacapa's reducing of added sugar by more than half, the pendulum will swing back the other way.
Ask yourself this question if it were not subpar why wouldn't they sell it as another line of rum as it would be tasting different. ED dry or something along those lines.
Hey, that was my idea!NCyankee wrote: Ask yourself this question if it were not subpar why wouldn't they sell it as another line of rum as it would be tasting different. ED dry or something along those lines.
I wonder if they just don't envisage a market for it. I think it's fair to say that the casual drinker wouldn't appreciate an unaltered rum, and perhaps to create a market for it would take too many of their resources?
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Capn Jimbo
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My friends...
It is tempting to believe that the "good rums" - well made and honestly aged" - are adding sugar simply and only because the crap competitors are, ie to match the consumer's well-trained predilection for "sweet" vs. the addition of sugar to cover up lack of quality.
The idea here being that ED is still making fine rums, but feel forced to add sugar. In all seriousness, that defies credibility, and here's why:
Your witness...
It is tempting to believe that the "good rums" - well made and honestly aged" - are adding sugar simply and only because the crap competitors are, ie to match the consumer's well-trained predilection for "sweet" vs. the addition of sugar to cover up lack of quality.
The idea here being that ED is still making fine rums, but feel forced to add sugar. In all seriousness, that defies credibility, and here's why:
- 1. The massive subsidies and takeover of the distributors and shelf position by the Big Three has driven many Caribbean rums off the shelves. Those that remain are forced to lower their prices/quality in lockstep. This is unavoidable.
2. Carl Kanto himself has expressed his discomfort and fears of this cheapening. MGXO was cheapened, and their "Black Barrel" tries to soften the young spirit with a brief time in heavily charred barrels.
3. JaRiMi long ago pointed out the deterioration of the ED rums, including the addition of sugar, now confirmed by ALKO, et al.
4. Che's terrific taste comparison with varying amounts of added sugar proved to my satisfaction that sugar will in fact, improve cheap rums while at the same time, ruining a fine one.
Your witness...