Review #118: Plantation 5 Year

Plantation hails from the island of Barbados the earliest rum producing region in the world. Today, Barbados is home to four rum distilleries: Mount Gay, the world’s oldest active rum company, West Indies Rum Distillery, Foursquare, and St. Nicholas Abbey. West Indies is the island’s largest distillery, and was bought by Maison Ferrand in 2017. The distillery has a mix of pot and column stills, and a unique Vulcan still.

Plantation 5 is a good example of the Barbados rum style; their rums are well blended and balanced. The 5 year is aged in ex-Bourbon (aka American oak) casks for 3-4 years, and finished in ex-Cognac (aka French oak) for the final 1-2 years. The rum spends the last 2 years in France. Plantation adds a fair amount of sugar to most of their rums (dosage), and the 5 year is no exception. This is in contrast with most other Barbados distilleries, especially Foursquare, which don’t add sugar or coloring to their rums.

Quick overview of our scoring system

Additional Information

• ABV: 40%
• Molasses based rum
• Twin column and pot still distillation
• Aged 3-4 years in ex-Bourbon, 1-2 years in ex-Cognac
• Dosage: 16 g/l

About Plantation

• Alexandre Gabriel is the president and owner of Maison Ferrand and was also the originator of their rum line (Plantation).
• Plantation tend to age spirit in the tropics before returning it to France for cask finishing. They often incorporate some interesting finishes like Cognac casks.
• For Plantation, Alexandre spends several months of the year in the Caribbean sourcing rum from local producers to be sold under the Plantation label.