Digging deeper into cane
A new facility opened by the West Indies Rum Distillery and West Indies Central Sugar Cane Breeding Station aims to break new ground in sugarcane research
Two Barbados businesses are celebrating the opening of a new sugarcane research facility which could help to revolutionise rum production on the island.
The West Indies Rum Distillery (WIRD) and the West Indies Central Sugar Cane Breeding Station (WICSCBS) collaborated to open the Harper Sugar Cane Mill, named after 19th-century Barbadian sugarcane expert Iran Harper.
The mill will press and collect fresh sugarcane juice, with the capacity to process seven tons of cane per hour. The extracted juice will then be used by the WICSCBS for research purposes and by the WIRD (the owner of Plantation and Stade’s Rum) for distillation.
At the opening of the new facility in April 2022, WIRD managing director Andrew Hassell said, “In 2020, the West Indies Sugar Cane Breeding Station’s team was in great need of a sugarcane mill for research purposes, and we needed sugarcane juice for rum development, as researching the heritage of rum is part of our DNA at West Indies Rum Distillery.”
The WICSCBS was established on Barbados as a sugarcane breeding facility in 1888 by M. Bowell (who is pictured on the country’s BB$2 bill). He wanted to investigate research by one M. Harper into ways to improve the quality and disease resistance in cane varieties. At the time, the cane industry had been besieged by a pestilence similar to the phylloxera that attacked grapes and wiped out many European vineyards in the 19th century, which was expediting the need for more disease-resistant cane species. Today, the WICSCBS is growing and experimenting on roughly 3,000 cane varieties, grown across 16 hectares (40 acres) of land.
Alexandre Gabriel, owner of WIRD and master blender at Maison Ferrand, said the new sugarcane mill would create a “playground” for the distillery to experiment with the raw materials used to produce its rums, in particular playing into the concept of terroir.
Speaking to Rum, he said, “[The researchers] are experimenting on cane with different goals in mind. Some canes are grown to produce more sugar, some more aromatics, some more fibres. Obviously, we are interested for the purpose of distilling and making rum, and especially canes that develop specific beautiful aromatics.”
Gabriel explained that the WICSCBS
and WIRD are researching two elements specifically: the sugarcane varieties themselves, and the differences between cane grown on different plots of land.
“This is the ‘terroir’ aspect,” Gabriel clarified. “We look at terroir in a multidimensional way. It is not just about the soil or even the climate. There is also a dimension about yeast and specific practices we are very interested in. Indeed, every plot of land will have different and identified cane varieties that will be studied in the years to come.”
WIRD has been around for almost as long as the cane breeding station. It was founded in 1893 by George Stade, a coppersmithturned-distiller who wanted to showcase the best modern rum-making techniques. To this end, WIRD has worked, and continues to work, with scholars, scientists and rum experts to harness the broadest possible range of production knowledge. As well as harnessing sugarcane research, WIRD grows its own proprietary yeast for fermentation and operates uniquely designed stills, including a rare 19thcentury chamber still.
Gabriel says, “We think that knowledge allows us to make beautiful rum. This is the heritage of WIRD, and this is something we proudly carry on.”