Westerhall Rum Distillery

Located on the Westerhall Estate.
In the distillery there are still remains of the old artefacts and equipment that make up the refinery process.

Jack Iron distilled by Westerhall is Grenada Light brown rum distilled from molasses and is aged 3 years.
Jack Iron from Westerhall is bottled at a little less alcohol than that found in the bars in Carriacou.
This is a strong rum without the harsh alcohol taste you would expect from a rum that can literally light up your life.
Bottled at 70% alcohol by volume.

The third oldest distillery in Grenada, Westerhall Estates, is owned by the Williams family.
In their words: "At Westerhall Estate we take pride in maintaining tradition.
So we still make our rums the old fashioned way; slowly, carefully, with the skill and knowledge of generations of experience.
Time has taught us that you never rush a good rum."

Privately owned by the Williams family, work is under way to restore this distillery to its original working order.
The Westerhall Estate dates from 1800 and is the third oldest distillery in Grenada.
Privately owned by the Williams family, the 70-acre estate and distillery are easily reached by minibus, west of St. David's on the south coast road.
Much had changed over the last two hundred years but today the estate produces sugar cane, cocoa, citrus, bananas, and rum.

The distillery was designed and built to take advantage of water diverted from the St. Louis river that runs through the estate.
This water was used to power a water wheel to crush the cane and then to condense the fresh rum from the still.

The copper pot still, visible from the road as you approach the estate, resembles the stills at the other old distilleries in Grenada.
But this updated still incorporated a steam boiler to provide better temperature control than is possible with an open fire.
From the still, the fresh rum is piped back to the first floor of the still house, to be aged, blended, and bottled.

In the cool, moist darkness on the second floor of this stone still house bats sleep during the day, hanging from the ceiling.
At night, they help control insects. Bats can be found in many of the aging warehouses, but their presence can be a little disturbing to unsuspecting tourists.
Although no rum was being distilled here at the time I visited, Westerhall bottles five rum products.

The blender, in addition to blending the rum, is responsible for keeping the secrets of the blend - a very important job.
Rum is a very competitive business, and it is not uncommon for even the general manager of a distillery not to know all of the details of the blends.
There are stories about blenders that died and everything being lost out the window.
Even though some blends have similar characters, I am told each label is a different blend.

Westerhall Plantation Rum, the premium product from this estate, is blended and bottled at 43% alcohol by volume.
This distinctive bottle, with its wax seal over the cork stopper, and hand-written batch number on the label, make a very nice presentation.
This is the most popular Westerhall product among tourists and enjoys a good reputation as a blended, aged rum.

Superb Light Grenada Rum is also a blend of several imported rums that's bottled at 43% alcohol by volume.
Strong Rum, as the name implies, is an over proof rum. At 79% alcohol by volume, this is the strongest rum bottled here.
Rum Sipper, another blended, white rum has a little less alcohol, but according to the label, not less than 70%.
As the name suggests, the best way to enjoy this rum is to sip it.

Jack Iron is distilled and aged three years in Trinidad as a blending rum.
It is bottled here at 70% alcohol by volume, without the spices commonly added to customize this strong rum.