Rum Mount Gay Eclipse (Barbados)

During the second expedition of the "New World" in 1492, Christopher Columbus introduced sugarcane, a recently discovered Asian plant, to America.

Europeans in the New World started to plant fields of sugarcane and developed the industry to trade with this prized merchandise in Europe. Soon after the Portuguese, Spanish, French and English started to mix their Brandy with the sugarcane.

In Barbados, hundreds of sugar cane plantations used the juice of the sugarcane plant to form sugar crystals. Eventually the plantation owners discovered the when this half crystallized juice was mixed with water and put in the sun it fermented into a liquor. In the mid 1600´s this mixture was converted into a drink, and it was when rum was born.

Mount Gay is considered the oldest rum in the world. It is believed that the first distilleries were started in 1493 although the first written account of a distillery was not recorded until 1703.

Mount Gay is located in the north of Barbados (San Lucy). In 1600 the plantation was known as Mount Gilboa.

Aubrey Ward, a prominent businessman, bought the Mount Gay plantation at the start of the 1900´s. He introduced new methods in order to meet the demand of Mount Gay rum while still maintaining its traditional character.

Together with his business partner and marketing specialist John Hutson, he introduced Mount Gay rum into the international market. These efforts continued with his son Mr. Darnley DaCosta until his death in 1989.

Since 1989 the Ward family continues producing the Mount Gay rum.

MOUNT GAY ECLIPSE

Mount Gay Eclipse is the leading brand of the distillery and an example of tradition in the art of distillation of rum in Barbados and the Anglo-speaking Caribbean. It was created in Barbados in 1919 to the most demanding palates around the world. It is believed that the name was chosen to celebrate the total eclipse of the sun occurred that year.

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