The Mount Gay Rum Distillery Tour Experience

In 2022, my Covid lifted restrictions holiday was to Barbados where I wrote on here about my distillery tour of St Nicholas Abbey. This is the more boutique distillery of the island, alongside Foursquare who also make small batch premium rums. Perhaps I’ll have to get there next time.

So, if you find yourself heading to Barbados any time soon, I’d certainly recommend having a read of my St Nicholas Abbey tour, and this Mount Gay one of course. There’s nothing to stop you from going to both – you’re on holiday after all!

As a little background, Mount Gay is the oldest running rum distillery in the world, with the deeds in writing to prove it. It has operated for over 300 years in St Lucy, Barbados’ most northerly parish, and is well situated on the islands luscious high ground. You can actually see the red roofed tiles of St Nicholas Abbey from Mount Gay, which was very useful for Sir John Gay Alleyne who rode between both distilleries in the 1700s. He owned St Nicholas, and managed Mount Gay. But, as you can imagine, he did something right for it to be named after him on his death in 1801.

The Tour Begins

The tour kicks off the right way, with a welcome Mount Gay Rum Punch. A mixture of their Eclipse rum, sugar syrup, lime and bitters, this shows off how versatile and delicious their basic rum is without much effort at all. You don’t need the fancy bartending kit to make this, just the right ingredients.

After a little talk about the history, which is in the old plantation house, now converted into a single tall ceilinged welcome area, you are taken on a nice walk around the grounds, showing off Mount Gay’s commitment to the island’s nature, as well as the ruined windmill and their original well that is still in use today.

Next, the first taste of the distillery comes into focus. After walking past, and above, the molasses house with gorgeous smells of treacle permeating the outside air, you enter the distillery to start with a molasses tasting. The idea is to compare a generic Caribbean one with Mount Gay’s own Barbadian molasses. No prizes for guessing which one tastes best. I thought this was a great way to actually let you taste the raw ingredient that shapes so many rums - molasses aren’t exactly something you can purchase off the shelf. They are sticky, sweet and treacly and give you a real taste for the rum – but that’s all in due course.

As the taste of molasses lingers, you then are taken into the next room to look into the huge fermenting vats. The guide gave a warning not to sniff the air too hard, despite the temptation, as he has had people feint from the surprise alcohol shock! The next room shows off their pot and column stills, including a rare, restored Coffey still, giving them a great range of flavours to blend together in their final rums.

The Barrel room

Once you’ve learnt all about how it’s made and the different methods of encouraging different flavours, which I won’t ruin for you, you are taken across the estate to the huge barrel warehouses. And despite the many wine, whisky and rum tours I’ve done before, I’d never seen anything quite like this.

Stacked up to 6 barrels high are rows upon rows of ageing rums that you can walk freely between. They used to let visitors write a little graffiti memento on them, but some guests unfortunately were writing over the master blender’s notes so that has been stopped! But, when you see Joan “hearts” Sam 2002, you get an idea of quite how long some of these have been in here for.

You’ll also notice a whole bunch of different barrels have been used, from vermouth and sherry to whisky and port and a few more unusual spirits too. I can’t stress enough how impressive this part was, especially when you consider that we’d only seen one of the warehouses.

It’s also worth pointing out that it was here we learnt that Mount Gay now has their first female Master Blender, Trudiann Branker, who took the helm from the men after a few hundred years in 2019. She is known for innovation and is responsible for launching their premium Master Blender Collection which creates unique, irreproducible blends such as their Master Blender Port Cask, or the Master Blender Collection XO Peat Smoke.

Mount Gay’s Tasting Tour

Sensibly, they give you the educational bit before the tasting, as you get quite a few generous samples to try. I am torn between been embarrassed and fortunate to say that I had to help some of my companions out with knocking them back.

In order, we tasted the following rums:

• Mount Gay Silver - A super smooth white rum that doesn’t just taste of ethanol. This is one of Trudiann’s upgrades that has added aged double distilled rum that gives it a much more smooth, refined texture than Mount Gay’s previous white rum. Great to mix, easy to sip.
• Mount Gay Eclipse - Distilled in copper pot and column stills and matured in ex-American whisky casks gives this golden rum a wonderful depth. Enjoy almond, vanilla, banana and dark chocolate notes. It won Gold at the 2025 San Francisco World Spirits Competition for good reason. This is an excellent value rum.
• Mount Gay Black Barrel - Aged in American whisky casks, like the Eclipse, but then finished over 6 months in charred Bourbon casks (“black barrels”), this rum takes the style of the eclipse and then turns it into a robust, bold beast. Notes of charred wood and butter combine with toffee, orange zest and toasty vanilla. This won gold at the 2024 San Fran contest!
• Mount Gay XO - Even more highly awarded is the XO. A blend of select mature rums between 5 and 17 years old, aged in American whiskey, bourbon and cognac casks, this is made for sipping neat. It’s very very good rum indeed, with dark chocolate, clove, fig and salted caramel flavours on an extremely smooth palate that belies the alcohol content.

Behind the counter were a few other very impressive looking rums, like their Mount Gay Single Estate Dark Rum, but being so exclusive these weren’t for tasting. More for setting you back a few hundred. The price of exclusivity and quality unfortunately!

And with that the tour was over. The tour group size was about right with 13 or so people, the tastings generous and the tour guides very good armed with all the knowledge they needed. Mount Gay is a place of passion and proud heritage and well worth the visit.