Jamaica's Rum GI Changes - Overview and Analysis

There’s news today from Jamaica regarding small but important revisions to the country’s rum geographical indication, aka GI. In what follows, I will outline the revisions, then follow-up with my analysis of each revision. Should you wish, you can get a baseline reference for the original 2016 GI in my earlier article, The Unabridged Jamaican Rum Geographical Indication.

Quoting from the Jamaica Gleaner article:

…eight guidelines added to the Jamaica Rum geographical indication by the Jamaica Intellectual Property Office, JIPO, to settle a legal dispute between National Rums of Jamaica Limited and the Spirits Pool Association. Top rum producer J. Wray & Nephew Limited also participated as an interested party.

To set the stage a bit more clearly, Jamaica’s Spirits Pool Association is the rum producer group organization that collectively represents the interests of Jamaica’s rum makers. Its shareholders comprise most of Jamaica’s rum producers, with J. Wray & Nephew and National Rums of Jamaica being the largest shareholders. This means that the legal dispute was technically between the Spirits Pool and one of its largest shareholders. And as the Gleaner article noted, the other large shareholder, J. Wray & Nephew Ltd, participated as an “interested party.”

In 2020, National Rums of Jamaica applied to the Jamaica Intellectual Property Office (JIPO) for certain changes to the GI. In 2023, the Spirits Pool submitted their own application to JIPO for a mostly opposing set of changes. Today’s news concerns JIPO’s decisions on both applications and corresponding GI changes.

Summary of Changes

When reading the GI change summary below, note that they don’t reflect all the requested changes from the opposing parties. If JIPO felt that the existing GI wording for a particular item was sufficient, no action was taken, and it does not appear in the summary list. With that context, here are the noted changes:

• Fermentation agents are limited to Saccharomyces and Schizosaccharomyces yeasts, along with naturally occurring wild yeasts.

• Local yeast and bacteria are allowed in fermentation

• Genetically modified yeasts are not allowed

• Aging can only take place in Jamaica

• Aging must occur in food grade wooden barrels

• Aging barrels must not be larger than 250 liters

• Nothing can be added to the finished rum besides water and sugarcane caramel

• A 24-month period during which unaged and aged rum stored outside Jamaica can apply for certification as compliant with the Jamaican GI.

Note that the above summaries are my wording, not the new wording in the revised GI.

Analysis

My thoughts on the above aren’t the knee-jerk reactions of an enthusiast. Over the past six years, I’ve spent considerable time reviewing and writing about rum GIs. Beyond my various GI articles, the Modern Caribbean Rum book contains my detailed summaries of the following GIs and rum regulations:

• Martinique (AOC and Le Galion)

• Guadeloupe

• Haiti

• Jamaica

• Guyana

• Cuba

• Dominican Republic

• Venezuela

• Costa Rica

• Panama

• Guatemala

• Puerto Rico

I’ve also written in detail about the rum standards for the US, European Union, and CARICOM.

I firmly believe that each country’s producers should be the sole arbiter of a GI’s requirements, working in partnership with the appropriate intellectual property entity, e.g., Jamaica’s JIPO. However, once a GI is in place, informed criticisms by interested observers should be expected.

It’s critical to know that a GI doesn’t constrain how a producer makes rum. Rather, it sets requirements for that rum to be labeled with the GI’s protected wording—in this case, “Jamaica Rum.” Producers can make and sell non-GI-compliant rum, but it must be labeled something else, e.g., “rum from Jamaica.”

With all that said, let’s look at the revisions.

Fermentation

• Fermentation agents are limited to Saccharomyces and Schizosaccharomyces yeasts, along with naturally occurring wild yeast.

• Local yeast and bacteria are allowed in fermentation

• Genetically modified yeasts are not allowed

These are important changes to the original GI, and I applaud them. The wording in Article 1 of the original GI seemed to me and others to prohibit some of the fermentation agents that make Jamaican rum so unique, including the traditional use of muck:

Besides water, the fermented rum wash may contain:

• sugar cane molasses

• juice of sugar cane

• crystallized cane sugar

• sugar cane syrup

• a mixture or combination of the above.

Likewise, Article 4 of the original GI states:

Fermenting agents are limited to Saccharomyces type yeasts.

The revised GI wording adds the allowance of Schizosaccharomyces yeast and “local bacteria,” i.e., a more formal term for muck.

Aging Location

• Aging can only take place in Jamaica

From my perspective, the original GI had some slight wiggle room for interpretation about where aging could occur. Regardless of your feelings about aging outside of the country of origin, this revision eliminates that ambiguity. To be clear, rum distilled in Jamaica can still be aged elsewhere. It just can’t be specifically labeled, “Jamaica Rum.” That wording is protected per the GI.

But while we’re on this point, consider this: A traditional argument for requiring aging to occur in the country of origin is oversight to prevent nefarious activities like blending the rum with spirits made elsewhere.

But aging isn’t the final step where such shenanigans might appear—blending and bottling is. Martinique’s AOC requires bottling in Martinique for this reason, as does the Demerara Rum GI for certain rum classes. In contrast, Jamaica’s GI doesn’t require bottling in Jamaica, Well-informed sources indicate that some Appleton Estate rum is bottled at the Forty Creek distillery in Canada, which is also owned by Campari.

Aging Containers - Casks

• Aging must occur in food grade wooden barrels

• Aging barrels must not be larger than 250 liters

The “Food grade wooden barrels” portion makes sense and allows for other types of wood besides oak. The original GI text said, “aged rums are aged in small wooden oak barrels.”

However, not allowing barrels larger than 250 liters may turn out to be … problematic in some cases.

It’s true that today, most rum ages in 200-liter ex-bourbon casks. However, most rum aged in much larger casks in the not-so-distant past. Rum from then-British colonies typically aged in 500-liter puncheons. You can see these large casks in the 1926 photo below. It shows one of the Lindo Brothers’ rum stores — the Lindo Brothers owned J. Wray & Nephew between 1916 and 1957.

Planter's Punch, 1926

It’s important to understand that larger casks present a proportionally smaller wood surface area to a spirit than smaller casks do. While wood extract flavors are one part of aging, there’s far more going on. Oxidative aging, including the angel’s share and associated concentration of flavor compounds, happens regardless of cask size. Simply put, a spirit can age longer in a large cask before it becomes overly woody. Picture rums like the Wray & Nephew 17-year that Trader Vic used in the first Mai Tai in 1944, for instance.

“But Matt,” you may be thinking, “aren’t you just stuck in the past? The times have changed, and now we use ex-bourbon casks.”

In response, I invite you to review the two screenshots below. The Hampden Estate Pago says “exclusively aged in sherry casks,” while the Worthy Park “Madeira” notes aging for two years in Madeira casks.

Hampden Estate Pago description

Worthy Park Madeira description

Why does this matter? Both sherry and Madeira casks are well in excess of 250 liters. Under the revised Jamaica GI, presumably, neither of these rums could call themselves Jamaica Rum despite being aged entirely in Jamaica. They could label those rums something else, but it would seem like a shame to not be able to call them “Jamaica Rum.”

UPDATE: After publishing this story, Worthy Park’s Alexander Kong noted in a comment that the Madeira cask they use is 225 liters. However, numerous sources indicate that Madeira is typically aged in casks exceeding 250 liters. (Difford’s Guide, The Single Cask, The Wine Society)

Limiting aging to 250-liter casks is a great way to effectively ensure aging in ex-bourbon casks. But is it a good idea? We might again look to Martinique, whose AOC regulations take aging very seriously. The AOC also limits cask size— for certain classes of rum. However, the largest cask allowed is 650 liters—enough to encompass both sherry and Madeira casks.

Aging Containers – Vats

While we’re on the subject of larger aging vessels, let’s briefly look at vatting for aging. While not explicitly mentioned by the revisions, the 250-liter maximum eliminates the possibility of vatted rum being allowed by the GI. You can think of an aging vat as a very large cask. Extractive aging, e.g., wood flavors, will be substantially reduced. However, oxidative aging and the flavors it creates and amplifies are still in effect. Vatting is still aging, although applying an age statement to vatted rum might not be wise.

Vatting has a very long history in Caribbean rum. The below 1938 photo of 10,000-gallon vats in the Lindo Brothers (J. Wray & Nephew) rum store shows one example.

Likewise, a very descriptive document found in the Jamaica National Library, written in 1958 by F.L. Casserly, titled The Story of John Wray & Nephew and Charles James Ward, also notes:

The rum is stored and aged in white oak vats of five and ten thousand gallon capacity, and in puncheons and casks.

Since I’ve previously brought up Martinique’s AOC, it allows for vatting. There is no size restriction on the aging vessel used for élevé sous bois (“matured in wood”) rums. You’ll see many aging vats if you visit Martinque’s distilleries. To be clear, disallowing vatting is Jamaica’s choice, but there wasn’t a unanimous agreement on this among producers.

Additives

• Nothing can be added to the finished rum besides water and sugarcane caramel

Putting aside the ongoing debate among enthusiasts regarding additives, this original GI was silent on the subject—I noted this in my 2018 article on the GI. Until now, the prohibition on additives other than caramel hinged on the obscure 1942 Excise Duty Act. With the GI’s revision, there’s no longer any ambiguity.

Grandfathering Rum Outside Jamaica

The final change creates a 24-month period during which rums outside of Jamaica that would otherwise comply with the GI requirements can apply to be certified as such. Provisions like this are fairly common practice in GIs when new requirements are implemented.

Wrap Up

Based on my understanding of both GI change applications submitted to JIPO, it seems like J. Wray & Nephew will be happier with the outcome. National Rums of Jamaica has already issued a press release stating their deep concern over the ruling.

Once I have all the final wording for the revisions, I plan to post a complete version of the updated GI.