When an overproof rum is needed, bartenders generally reach for Wray & Nephew. The Jamaican spirit has been the popular choice for overproof for years, and rightly so. At 63% abv the white rum is aggressive (in a good way) in both alcohol content and flavour, offering itself perfectly for mixing in cocktails.
However, recently there have been reports of a shortage of Wray & Nephew on many shelves, most noticeably in the US, due to unexpected heavy rainfall at the distillery causing a drop in production. This was confirmed in a statement (to Vine Pair) by J Wray & Nephew, which outlined that due to the weather conditions and equipment challenges the brand has not been able to distil as much of its overproof as planned, but expects to return to full supply capacity by Q4 2024. Despite these challenges, the shortage proves the point that demand is there for overproof and when it runs dry, people notice. But Wray & Nephew isn’t the only popular overproof on the market and many other brands are also finding success in the high-abv space.
Aiming high
So what exactly is overproof? In the spirit of rum being a flexible category, this answer can vary depending on who you ask. For example, in Jamaica, Alex Perkins, export sales manager at Worthy Park Estate, says overproof would be classed as 63% and above, which is where Worthy Park Overproof sits. However, Alexandre Gabriel, master blender at Planteray Rum in Barbados, notes it generally looks to above 57.14% abv as an overproof. Dave Marsland, St Lucia Distillers rum brand ambassador, comes to a similar conclusion, adding that he classes overproof as “bloody strong” and “anything that offers a punch”. So despite having different figures for the benchmark of overproof, the consensus is that it needs to have a certain punchiness you just don’t get when you drop the abv much lower.
White overproof
Overproof rums are essentially the backbone of the category. As Gabriel says, they’ve “been around for hundreds of years, playing a significant role in the history of rum and shaping how the spirit is consumed”. Overproof rums are known for “intense flavours”, Gabriel continues. “They are prized for their ability to stand up to dilution, making them exceptional flavour enhancers. Alcohol supports flavours and when you increase the alcohol level it creates a higher concentration of flavours.
“However, they have always been popular in tiki cocktails, where their boldness shines through even in complex creations. As a result, the on-trade channel has historically been our primary target for this rum, as it thrives in the hands of skilled bartenders who appreciate its versatility,” Gabriel continues.
Planteray’s take on a classic overproof rum is its OFTD, which stands for Old Fashioned Traditional Dark, blending rums from Guyana, Jamaica and Barbados bottled at 69% abv.
Over in the Seychelles is Takamaka, which creates an overproof as part of its Seychelles Series. It is a blend of pot column distilled molasses rum based on its Rum Blanc, bottled at 69% abv. Also finding the on-trade the most popular market for overproof, Steven Rioux, master blender at Takamaka, says this is because “it’s a great vehicle for texture as well as flavour within cocktails”.
Overproof continues to be a successful move for many brands. Rick Dacey, director and co-founder of Outlier Distilling Company on the Isle of Man says: “We felt a bigger pull on the overproof than we initially expected. There’s also been a higher percentage of our direct-to-customer orders being overproof than we thought we’d get.
“With our Millions of Peaches overproof, if we knew how well it would’ve been received we probably would’ve been laying down casks every couple of months, rather than having only 300 bottles available,” adds Dacey. Co-founder Ian Warborn-Jones also has a winemaking background which, Dacey notes, has had an impact on the rums in the sense that they don’t like to colour or add artificial flavours, so “having a white overproof that packs a lot of flavour speaks to that background”.
Spiced and aged overproof
As well as white overproof rum, which is often a more common choice for cocktails, there are also those that are spiced or aged. With the white overproof options available clearly seeing demand and popularity, it does beg the question of where these other expressions fit into the overproof space.
Marsland, speaking of St Lucia’s Bounty Strong 151 rum, says: “Having the age profile automatically gives us a different approach, but it still has to represent what the St Lucia style is all about. Strong rum is normally unaged or very young and stripped of colour from charcoal filtration, but with Bounty 151 we wanted people to be able to sip it and sip again. So we decided that a blend of fresh column still and cask strength column still would be better.”
The brand also has, exclusively to St Lucia due to its strength, its Denros Strong rum, created after the merger of the last two rum distilleries in St Lucia, The Roseau Bay and Dennery. It’s unaged, column still and is 80% abv. On the island Marsland says it’s used as the base in a lot of rum cocktails and that “strong rum showcases the island as much as spiced rums do”.
Takamaka is seeing interest in spiced overproof rum, with Rioux saying: “I’m quite excited by spiced overproof. While it is a niche category, it offers a distinct experience compared to standard overproof white rum or even aged rum. The bold flavour profile makes the rum assertive and serves as a unique ingredient for great mixology.”
“However, while there is a need for spiced overproof rum, we find it caters more to a specific rum-enthusiast audience and has more specialised applications in comparison to the classic white overproof,” Rioux continues.
Noticing this progression in overproof is Duo Rum. Owned by Brewdog and based in Scotland, the brand blends Caribbean and Scottish rums to create white and spiced spirits.
Steven Kearsley, managing director of Brewdog Distilling Co, says: “We currently don’t produce an overproof but we shall in the years ahead as our maturing stock comes of age, and we’ll release a cask strength expression which will be north of 50% abv.
Alongside this there would be an opportunity to accompany it with an overproof white rum.” Alongside the offerings of white overproof, spiced and aged there are rums that sit more in the middle. Worthy Park recently released its WP Overproof, a combination of molasses and cane juice rum.
The expression sits with the company’s existing molasses-based Rum-Bar Overproof, tipping its hat to the original days of rum production, the brand says, when cane juice was more widely used in rum-making before it was replaced in large part by molasses. Perkins says that since the distillery has a sugar factory, it was in the position to utilise that for this iteration.
According to Perkins, it’s unusual for a Jamaican rum producer to be releasing something with this much cane juice distillate in it. “Jamaican rum as a whole is most notably known for its overproof rum. It’s the biggest-selling category domestically. We’ve just started to expand the WP portfolio, and we saw there was room to incorporate a WP overproof and make it different by incorporating that cane juice distillate.”
It’s clear that overproof is evolving, whether that be in strength, flavours, age or ingredients, and consumers can find a variety of offerings to be sipped neat, or used as an enhancing agent in rum-based cocktails. With Wray & Nephew the dominant market leader, it’s interesting to see more brands coming to the fore and showcasing what their overproofs can offer, as the niche category continues to grow.
