The Appleton Estate (St. Elizabeth, Jamaica) Rum Tour -- Raw materials production

The Joy Spence Appleton Estate Rum Tour is fulsome, educational, informational, entertaining, and tasty, a worthwhile experience.

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.

 

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.

Source: distillerytrail.com

Photo credits: Donna Henry

Sugar cane pressing -- the Donkey technique
Photo Credits: Donna Henry

Historical sugar cane pressing -- the wooden mill
Photo credit: Donna Henry

Molasses tasting station.
Photo credits: Donna Henry

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

The Road to Appleton Estate Distillery (Nassau Valley, St. Elizabeth, Jamaica)

I am a fan of Appleton Estate aged rums and, on a prior trip to Jamaica, I had been treated to a personal, in-home tasting of the Signature (15 aged rums), Reserve (20 rums), and Rare (youngest rum a minimum of 12 years old) blends. For my most recent trip to the island, my friend Paul took it up a notch: he arranged a visit to the distillery so that we could experience how the rums are made.

We started out right after breakfast. We were told that the trip would be approximately 3 hours from our starting point and we would be traversing the internal mountain range (By the way, this visit runs 90 minutes from Negril and 3 hours from Kingston.). This notice did not adequately prepare us for the trip. The mountain range is essentially a limestone plateau and some effort is required to attain the high point. Travel across its core was characterized by twisting, turning travel through winding narrow roads with limited opportunities to pass slower-moving traffic. There were a few instances of motion sickness during the course of the transit.

The map below shows our route, with the light-green coloration representing the scope of the Dry Harbor Mountain Range.

Our route from Priory on the north coast to Appleton Estate

The B3, the north-south artery that we were using to traverse the mountain, forks at a town called Cave Valley, with one branch continuing south and the other striking out southwest and then west to Appleton Estate. We stopped at Cave Valley for a breather, beer, and the bathroom. While drinking some refreshments in a dive bar I challenged the bartender to a game of dominoes but the team was having none of it; onward.

Refreshments at Cave Spring

Street food

Appleton Estate is located in Nassau Valley in Jamaica's St. Elizabeth Parish. The valley is 443 foot above sea level and is the result of erosion of the limestone plateau. The erosion resulted in a flat-bottomed valley with productive terra rosa soils.

As we came around a bend in the trail, the valley stretched out below us as far as the eye could see: lush, green, and with sugar cane leaves swinging lazily in the wind.

We were tired and stiff after the long ride and hurried to exit the bus and stretch our legs once it came to a stop. The surroundings were clean, orderly and welcoming. I snapped a few pictures.

The tour and tasting will be covered in a subsequent post.

©Wine -- Mise en abyme