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Caribbean Week
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About 21 miles from Kingston, the capital of St. Vincent, located in the northern part of the island is St. Vincent Distillers.
During the early 1900, Mt. Bentinck Estates Limited built a distillery there to make use of the readily available molasses from the sugar factory, which was conveniently located next door. The distillery then was called Mt. Bentinck Distillery.
The Mt. Bentinck Distillery operated successfully until 1963 when the Mt. Bentinck Estates sold the distillery to the Government, which was when the name was changed from Mt. Bentinck Distillery to St. Vincent Distillers Limited. The sugar mill also closed operations in that year, due to the absense of the sugar cane crop, which was being replaced with banana crops.
With the islands economy now shifting to bananas, the distillery was now faced with increased costs of importing molasses, the product essential to the productivity of rum.
In 1979 a new crop of sugar was planted, with the hopes of an inexpensive domestic source of molasses. The sugar mill was refurbished and reopened in 1980. The distillery also underwent major upgrade, with the installation of new machinery purchased from England, and in 1985, the first rum from the distillery was produced. Unfortunately, in those five years, the sugar mill did not prove profitable, and closed its operation in the same year of 1985. Bananas once again became the essential cultivation, resulting in the distillery having to import molasses once again. Molasses are imported to this very day.
In 1996 the Government decided to privatise the distillery, and it was consequently sold to private enterprise.
St. Vincent bottles a variety of rum products ranging from white rum to aged blended products. The most popular white rum is known as Sunset Strong Rum which is 84.5 percent Alc. vol. The Sunset Light Rum is popular as a smooth white rum, bottled at 40 per cent Alc. vol. Sunset Premium Rum, and Captain Bligh Golden Rum, are both aged rum, with a unique smoo
th, palatable flavour, desirous of all "brown" rum connoiseurs.
St. Vincent Distillers is also proud of their production of Rum Punch, a popular drink throughout the Caribbean. This mixture consists of Rum and Tropical Fruit Juices.
The many years' experience in the production of rum has resulted in St. Vincent Distillers priding itself in producing the finest quality rums, and the name "Sunset" is symbolic to St. Vincent and The Grenadines.
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