Hurricane Melissa’s Impact on Jamaica’s Rum Makers

On October 28^th, Hurricane Melissa crossed over Jamaica as a Category 5 storm, Jamaica’s largest recorded hurricane ever. News of how Jamaica’s people and infrastructure fared is still trickling in as I write this.

News organizations will focus on the broader issues, but as someone familiar with Jamaica’s rum makers, I’ll share some thoughts on how Melissa might affect the country’s rum industry. Questions about how Jamaica’s six distilleries fared are naturally top of mind. Still, when it comes to resuming rum making, there’s much more to consider beyond any immediate damage.

Distillery Damage

Very early reporting from people on the ground in Jamaica suggests the three easternmost distilleries — Clarendon, New Yarmouth, and Worthy Park suffered relatively minor damage. It’s the three westward distilleries — Long Pond, Hampden, and Appleton — that less is known about thus far. A more comprehensive assessment will likely take several more days, once workers can get to these remote distilleries, fully assess the situation, and report back.

Hurricane Melissa’s track over Jamaica, October 2025.

Melissa’s eye crossed northward over Jamaica’s western parishes, passing very close—if not directly over—Hampden Estate. Appleton and Long Pond were a relatively short distance to the east of Melissa’s track. The fermentation and distillation areas of all three distilleries are a mix of old stone/masonry structures alongside others with corrugated metal siding and roofing, easily torn away by hurricane-force winds.

Hampden and Long Pond are Jamaica’s last remaining heritage high-ester rum distilleries, while Appleton is Jamaica’s best-known and oldest rum distillery. The loss of any of them would be a huge blow to Jamaica’s rum legacy. I do know that Long Pond’s column still structure was toppled. However, the Blair column still within the structure hasn’t been operational since 2009.

Jamaica’s two largest distilleries, New Yarmouth and Clarendon, are about 90 km from Mellissa’s closest passage. Their column still areas are relatively modern, having been built or overhauled within the last 20 years. Both were designed to withstand very high winds. Both distilleries also have older structures housing their pot stills and associated fermenters. These structures face a higher risk from high winds. However, early reports suggest these structures at New Yarmouth and Clarendon weren’t seriously damaged.

Worthy Park was the furthest distillery from Melissa’s path and is a relatively modern structure, built in 2005. Worthy Park posted a statement,

In the aftermath of Hurricane Melissa, our thoughts are with everybody affected by this devastating storm. We are relieved to share that Worthy Park Estate sustained no significant structural damage and our team is safe.

While we begin clean-up at the Estate, our attention extends across the island as we support those in the hardest-hit communities and work together toward recovery.

Even so, geography poses a different kind of challenge. Worthy Park is in a valley, usually accessed via a steep, twisting mountain road prone to mudslides. While this road is currently closed, employees can use alternate routes.

The Human Factor

While distillery and supply chain damage are relatively straightforward to assess, the hurricane’s impact on the distillery staff is even more important. Workers may have been injured, lost their housing, or need to focus on tending to their families. Even if a distillery’s equipment can resume operations, it may take longer for the staff to be ready to return to work.

Also, when disaster strikes, distilleries usually first focus on helping their communities. We saw this during COVID-19, when distilleries around the world turned their production to making alcohol-based sanitizer. And when Puerto Rico was hit with a hurricane several years ago, distilleries like Bacardi used their stills to purify water for the community.

Molasses Supply Chain

In times past, Caribbean rum makers solely used molasses from their island’s sugar mills. However, Jamaica’s sugarcane industry has been in steep economic decline for decades. Less sugarcane is planted, and most of Jamaica’s sugar factories have closed. Jamaica’s rum industry is now heavily dependent on imported molasses to augment what’s made locally.

Worthy Park has been the notable exception, using only molasses from its on-site sugar mill—but hurricanes often flatten sugarcane fields. Jamaica’s sugarcane harvest season is starting soon, and very little of this year’s sugarcane crop may be available. And even if some of the cane survived and could be harvested, Worthy Park’s sugar factory would have to be operational.

Jamaica’s distilleries typically hold a reserve of molasses, typically enough for a few months. However, if the molasses terminals where tanker ships unload imported molasses were heavily damaged, the distilleries could exhaust their molasses supply. It’s unknown how much of a reserve each distillery had on hand when Melissa struck.

Aging Stock

Wray & Nephew (New Yarmouth, Appleton) holds Jamaica’s largest stock of casked rum and distributes those casks in warehouses around the island. This helps mitigate the risk of catastrophic loss at any single warehouse.

National Rums of Jamaica (Clarendon and Long Pond) have all their aging stock at the former Innswood distillery, well to the east of Melissa’s track. Hampden and Worthy Park presumably store all, or nearly all, of their casks at the distillery.

Bouncing Back

If a distillery suffers extensive damage, its owners must decide whether it’s financially viable to repair or rebuild. Long Pond faced such a moment in 2018 when a fire destroyed the fermentation hall and rum storage tanks.

Appleton and New Yarmouth are owned by Grupo Campari, a large multinational spirits producer with relatively deep financial pockets.

Long Pond and Clarendon have three owners:

• Sugar Company of Jamaica, i.e., Jamaica’s government

• Demerara Distillers Ltd

• West Indies Rum Distillery (owned by Maison Ferrand / Planteray Rum)

Any large-scale repair or rebuilding would have to be collectively agreed upon by all the owners.

Hampden and Worthy Park are owned by Jamaican families.

Jamaican Rum Availability

If you’re wondering whether to rush out and buy all the Jamaican rum you can lay your hands on, the answer is, “It depends.”

Unaged expressions like Hampden’s Rum Fire are the most likely to disappear from store shelves in the near term. They can move quickly from distillation to bottling and to market, often within just a few weeks or months. If a distillery can’t distill, it will disrupt the pipelines of these rums in short order. This happened recently with Wray & Nephew White Overproof, when New Yarmouth ran into issues with dunder disposal, forcing it to sharply reduce distillation operations.

Wray & Nephew White Overproof Shortage - What's the Story?

The aged Jamaican rum supply is less likely to be immediately impacted, as each distillery has aging stock of various durations. A period of non-production can be smoothed out in future years via changes to blends and so forth.

In terms of getting rum to market, Appleton and other JWN products are bottled at the company’s Kingston facility, which I’m told is susceptible to flooding. However, Appleton and other JWN can also be bottled at Campari’s Canadian facility.

It’s worth noting that blenders like E&A Scheer hold a fair amount of bulk Jamaican rum. Such blenders regularly buy from certain Jamaican distilleries for subsequent resale to brands like Smith & Cross, Banks, Denizen, and Doctor Bird. If Scheer’s Jamaican rum supply dwindles, those brands could face higher prices.

Likewise, if a distillery’s ability to make rum diminishes, they’re likely to hold on to that rum for their house brands, rather than sell it in bulk. That could further squeeze private-label and independent-bottler brands.

Fortunately, at least two of the distilleries known to sell bulk rum to Scheer and others appear to be ready to start distilling soon, assuming other hurdles like molasses supply don’t pop up.

Wrap Up

To be clear, I’m not reporting on the specific damage and issues each distillery will face in the coming months—it’s way too early to know, and future reporting will bring these details to light. Instead, consider the above as background about what might play out, along with potential ramifications. As with many of you, Jamaican rum and its people are very dear to me, and I anxiously await further news while hoping for the best.