Founded in 1749, Appleton Estate is Jamaica's oldest continuously run distillery. The estate recently came under the ownership of Campari Group when it acquired Jamaica-based Lascelles de Mercado and its Appleton, Wray and Nephew, and Coruba brands.
We were warmly welcomed by a duo of Appleton Estate employees and ushered into a spacious, light-filled, esthetically pleasing interior. The ticket counter was immediately on the right upon entrance, with a merchandise shop immediately behind. There is a spacious sitting area, with a variety of seat types, separating the ticket counter from a well-stocked bar situated to the far left of the room. A hallway leading off the room has its walls tastefully decorated with artwork depicting local scenes and pictures honoring Joy Spence, the company's Master Blender and the person after whom who the tour is named.
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| Joy Spence tribute wall |
The tour does not begin until a minimum number of guests have signed in. The maximum number per tour is 50. When our guide (Tiffany) was satisfied with the attendee count, she called for us to congregate in the aforementioned hallway. She welcomed us to the tour, explained the tour logistics, and then began to introduce the estate and its history.
Appleton Estate is 11,402 acres in size, according to Tiffany, with 3707 acres dedicated to the growing of sugar cane. The estate has both sugar production and rum distillation facilities on site with sugar production of up to 160 tons/day and rum production of 10 million liters/year. A summary of the estate's history is shown in the picture below.
Joy Spence, the distillery's Master Blender, is the only female Master Blender in the world. All of the estate's current offerings are her designs. Important landmarks in her career are illustrated in the timeline below.
At the conclusion of her introductory presentation we were ushered into a movie theater for a short, but informative presentation on the estate and its rums. We exited the theater through the rear into an open air exhibit consisting of separate stations, reach covering a specific stage of the raw-material-production process.
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| Source: distillerytrail.com |
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| Photo credits: Donna Henry |
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| Sugar cane pressing -- the Donkey technique Photo Credits: Donna Henry |
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| Historical sugar cane pressing -- the wooden mill Photo credit: Donna Henry |
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| Molasses tasting station. Photo credits: Donna Henry |
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| Molasses mustache. Photo credit: Donna Henry |
At the conclusion of the raw-material-production stage of the tour, we passed through a security-manned gate into the distillery. I will pick up that portion of the tour in my next post.
©Wine -- Mise en abyme
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