Barbancourt

The history of Barbancourt rum

Louis Barbancourt, a wine merchant from Bordeaux, arrived in Saint Domingue in 1736. He settled on the Archaie property where he began to produce rum in 1765. He was one of the few survivors of the revolution (1791-1804) that led to the creation ofHaiti. Legend has it that he was spared thanks to the inimitable quality of his rum!

In 1862, the brothers Dupré and Labbé Barbancourt moved the distillery to Damien, on the Habitation Mouline. At that time, they re-distilled local clairins according to the Charentaise method. They then aged them in French oak barrels. This very French method made them stand out, whereas Haitians only drink unaged clairins.

The brothers separated in 1906, and Dupré kept the distillery until his death in 1907. His wife Nathalie Gardère inherited the company and entrusted the management to her nephew Paul Gardère. Jean Gardère, the nephew's son, became CEO from 1946 to 1990.

Barbancourt conquers the world

After the war, he developed Barbancourt and its image, quickly ensuring it an international reputation. A new distillery was set up in 1949, on the Cul-de-Sac plain, in the middle of the cane fields. Barbancourt now has its own mill and grinds its own cane.

In 1952, the first rum made from pure cane juice was produced on the estate. In the 1960s, the family marketed a blend that they had initially made for themselves. The Reserve du Domaine 15 ans quickly became a worldwide reference.

In 1990, Jean Gardère's son Thierry scrapped the old still and replaced it with a modern and efficient distillation column. The terrible earthquake that hit Haiti in 2010 caused considerable damage. Barbancourt was hit hard, as four of its employees lost their lives and 50 others (including the owners) lost their homes.

The distillery also lost 30% of its stock (which was then considerable). The distillery was forced to stop production for 4 months, but managed to restart, thanks to its French and American customers who supported it in this ordeal. Thanks to hard work, the production has returned to its initial level, and the stocks of old rums have been rebuilt.

When Thierry Gardère died in 2017, his daughter Delphine Nathalie Gardère took over.

Barbancourt production side

The Barbancourt distillery is surrounded by 600 hectares of sugar cane, 120 of which it owns. The harvest lasts for a good part of the year, from November to June, which is much longer than in the rest of the West Indies.

The cane juice is pressed with the help of 4 mills, and is partly transformed into syrup. The bagasse is then dried and used to fuel the boiler.

Fermentation takes between 36 and 48 hours. The rum is distilled on a triple column (two stainless steel and one copper) with 22 exhaustion and 25 rectification trays. It is distilled to 92-93% alcohol.

The wine is aged in small 7,000-litre tuns and in French oak barrels from the Limousin region, made by the great Seguin Moreau company. In the same spirit as for cognac, a slight dosage of 7 grams of sugar per litre is applied during the ageing process.

Approximately 3 million bottles leave the distillery each year.

The Barbancourt range of rums

Barbancourt has offered a small but highly emblematic range since its inception. There is a light white rum, available in North America and locally in Haiti. It is rather the aged rums that have made the distillery famous, and in particular the Barbancourt 3 star rum (aged for 4 years in casks and tuns).

A little higher up the range, we find the Barbancourt 5 stars (8 years old), and then the famous Réserve du Domaine (15 years old), recognisable by its illustrations by Félix Jean. Read less