Liverpool's Main Rum Revealed - The Video

Jun 15, 2023

Back in the day — OK, 2017 — very few people had heard of The Main Rum Company, the Liverpool company that supplies most of the rum world’s independent bottlers. Exponentially fewer were allowed into the Plutus warehouse at the city’s docks to gaze in slack-jawed awe at the thousands of casks aging a treasure trove of different long-aged rums from around the globe. Main Rum deliberately flew under the radar to not distract attention from its customers who sold the rum under their own brand.

I was one of those lucky people, and my trip report was the first to take people behind the centuries-old brick walls that also served as a backdrop for several famous Bob Dylan photos. At the start of my visit, I was told I couldn’t take any photos. Talk about agonizing! How could I really tell the story without imagery to illustrate my words?

Fortunately, the Cotswold Distillery also stores casks at the warehouse. In a massive stroke of luck, the Cotswold’s owner, Daniel Szor, had shared a few photos from inside the warehouse on Facebook while I was finishing up the article, and I sweet-talked my way into permission to use them in my article.

My, how times have changed! Since my 2017 visit, Main Rum has slowly revealed more and more about its operations. In 2021, while finishing up the Bulk and Sourced rum chapter of Modern Caribbean Rum, E&A Scheer gave me new high-resolution photos inside the warehouse, which became an integral part of the chapter. (E&A Scheer owns The Main Rum Company.)

Two years later, The Main Rum Company has just shared a short video (see below) taking visitors inside the warehouse and the company’s new office and tasting room. When I visited, Main Rum’s offices were the former Demerara Distillers Office space. They could have passed for an insurance agency if not for the dozens of cask sample bottles on the desks. The video took me back to my visit, including the rickety elevator ride to the basement. The video is well worth a watch. And if you have Modern Caribbean Rum, check out Chapter 13 for a deeper dive into the company’s operations.