Rum Wonk's 2024 Year in Review
Slipping just under the wire, it’s time for Rum Wonk’s end-of-2024 recap. We’ll tick through some stats and most viewed posts momentarily, but first, here are some personal rum-related highlights of 2024.
Distillery Visits
Somehow, I only made it to two rum-making regions outside of the US in 2024, but I made up for it by visiting eleven rum distilleries – a personal best!
Ten of those visits came during a week in Guadeloupe with Mrs. Wonk and Black Tot Rum’s Mitch Wison. Mitch and I were lured to the fair isle to speak at the Caribbean Rum & Food Festival at the end of February. Once the festival concluded, an epic 4-day distillery trail commenced. Day one was an early wake-up to catch the ferry to Marie Galante, where we took in Bellevue, Bielle, and Poisson (Pere Labat). Day two was Montebello, Longuteau, and Karukera, while day three took us north to Distillerie Bonne Mere and Reimonenq. Mrs. Wonk (wisely) chose beach time the next day while Mitch and I took in Bologne and Papa Rouyo. For good measure, Mitch woke up early on our departure day to trek across Guadelupe to Damoiseau. Montebello’s Paul Timon gets a huge tip of the hat for connecting us to key people and helping us plan our entire week on the island.
Just a month after Guadeloupe, I was in the air again, heading to the Copal Tree distillery in Belize as a guest of the Copalli brand. Upon landing in Belize City, a 10-seater prop plane took us to Punta Gorda on the other end of the country. Nestled in the Belizean rainforest, The Copal Tree Lodge exceeded all expectations in every way. Copalli rum is made from cane juice grown and harvested by the company, and we spent ample time in the cane fields and the distillery. The brand has some new rums I look forward to writing about when the time comes.
Publishing
As some of you know, Mrs. Wonk and I own Wonk Press, a small direct-to-consumer publishing company. 2024 was a big year for us in stepping outside rum and tiki to release our fourth title, The Tequila Ambassador V.O., by Tomas Estes. (Read more about the project here.)
We have yet more coming in 2025, among them, a book about London Dock rum and the Royal Navy’s rums, co-written with Planteray’s Alexandre Gabriel. We started the project in 2018, with most of my research and writing done in 2019. Alexandre then took what I uncovered and set about to make a rum in the style of the Royal Navy rum. The rum finally appeared this year as a limited-edition rum dubbed “Mister Fogg.” As part of the release, Planteray created a limited-edition book combining what I’d written with Alexandre’s technical analysis and how we created the rum. A month after the July release, I accompanied Alexandre and several other Planteray team members on a whirlwind 12-day bicoastal tour.
I mention this because Wonk Press is working on a new book that expands on the earlier book. Early 2025 is our target release date. Should you want to know when it’s available, add your name to this special mailing list dedicated to communication about the book.
Rum Wonk Substack
As for this newsletter, in 2024, I continued down the road less traveled. While listicles and posts about the latest rum releases might get more views, I’d rather write the deeper stories no one else covers—even if it means going against the conventional wisdom.
I posted 30 stories here, including what you’re now reading. Subscriptions to Rum Wonk nearly doubled, and paid subscribers increased by 60%. While all Rum Wonk content is free to read, paid annual and monthly subscriptions immensely help me pay the bills while remaining one of the few independent rum content creators. If you like what you see here, consider chipping in for a paid subscription.
Top Ten Rum Wonk Posts of 2024
As promised, what follows are the top ten stories (by page views) published in 2024. Some of my pre-2024 content still gets enough traffic to be in the top 10 most viewed, but I’ve filtered them out.
Plantation Rum Becomes Planteray Rum
My most viewed story by a long stretch was Plantation Rum renaming to Planteray several years after announcing they’d change the name. Certain pundits had asserted Plantation didn’t actually plan to change their name, but as part of writing this story, I uncovered the trademark application for Planteray two years prior.
Is Bumbu Rum? It Depends...
A frequent rejoinder in social media threads is that Bumbu isn’t rum. The truth is more complicated than 99.9% of people realize, as I explored in this story.
Wray & Nephew White Overproof Shortage - What’s the Story?
Circa mid-2024, Wray & Nephew White Overproof rum became scarce on store shelves. What happened? A dreary article in a Jamaica newspaper’s business section and some informed insight turned up the real cause.
Planteray’s Navy Rum Project - Behind the Scenes
As noted above, Planteray’s Mister Fogg navy-style rum appeared this year. In this post, I shared some behind-the-scenes details of my part of the project.
Rum Categories: Where Theory and Practice Collide
Rum categorization and its pitfalls are a frequent topic here. In this posting, I assert that technical categorizations like Gargano’s confuse the casual enthusiast. And when it comes to drink recipes, a flavor-based categorization might be better.
Renegade Rum’s Sale - What We Know
Grenada’s Renegade Rum project ticks all the boxes for rum geeks — a modern and ecologically mindful distillery with an extreme focus on terroir. Unfortunately, doing so profitably is a large hurdle. In late 2024, word went around that Renegade was being sold. My story provided significant background context and made some informed speculation about potential buyers.
Jamaica Rum Distillery Map and Notes
Rum geeks love a good distillery map, which sadly are few and far between. A previous map I’d done for Guadeloupe’s rum distilleries was very well-received, so doing a map for Jamaica’s distilleries was a no-brainer.
Is it Safe to Drink Old Rum?
This question comes up frequently on the internet with replies from across the spectrum of correctness. I answered the question in extensive detail in this story.
Rhum Agricole in your Mai Tai? Let’s Talk.
Treasured misconceptions die hard. Among them is the use of rhum agricole as the “Martinique rum” in mid-20th century recipes. As it turns out, mainstream Martinique rum was very different seventy years ago.
Bourbon Drinkers and Barbados Rum – What’s the Deal?
Rum is seeing a surge of bourbon drinkers switching lanes to see what’s happening here. Many such crossovers flock to Barbados rum and often don’t venture farther afield. In this piece, I lay out a very plausible reason why this is.
Sentimental Favorites
I’ll wrap up here with three stories I published later in the year, so they didn’t have as long to accumulate page views. I’m particularly pleased with how they turned out, so I’m resharing them for your consideration.
Distillerie Bonne Mère Lands a Leading Role in Rhum
While French rum from Martinique, Guadeloupe, and Reunion is synonymous with rhum agricole, these locales collectively make more molasses than cane juice rum. Unfortunately, some great French molasses rums aren’t well-distributed outside France. Guadeloupe’s Distillerie Bonne Mere may help change this, and I was among the first journalists to tour the distillery before its grand unveiling to consumers.
Jamaica Rum Industry Family Tree
The connections between Jamaica’s rum brands, distilleries, and corporate owners can be confusing. Thus, I was inspired to create a simple infographic to make the relationships easy to understand.
Rum Aging Regulations - A Tale of 14 Rum GIs
Jamaica’s Spirit Pools recently changed the country’s rum geographical indication. Of particular note is the requirement that aging occur in Jamaica and that casks are limited to 250 liters or less. This made me ponder how Jamaica’s revised requirements compare to other rum GIs. I don’t know of anyone else wonky enough to survey the aging and bottling requirements of all known rum GIs —14 in total!
With this, my 2024 posting comes to an end. Rest assured, I have plenty of new topics for 2025 and some fresh ideas about sharing fundamental rum knowledge. Stay tuned!
Great informative read as always Mr. Wonk
Thank you! 🙏🏻