About

Papalin is a project dedicated to blends conceived by Luca Gargano, with the aim of bringing together rums from Caribbean islands that have been entirely produced and aged at distilleries. After the release dedicated to Jamaica, the spotlight shifts to Haiti, with a rum produced from a blend from 5 different distilleries: Sajous, Vaval, Casimir, Distillerie de Port-au-Prince and Le Rocher, for a total of 32 selected casks, all entirely aged in a tropical climate. The casks are ex-cognac, ex-bourbon, ex-carbon and ex-whisky.

The idea is based on the desire to go back in the history of rum to the late 1800s, when Jamaican traders began to make blends, i.e., mixtures of rums from different distilleries. Take Myers’s and John Wray Nephew: in addition to selling rum casks and exporting them to Europe, they also produced their own blends – never specifying the distilleries of origin. Then, over the last seventy years, we’ve seen an increasing number of brands of European-produced blends like for example Negrita, with mixtures made by European blenders. Then in the seventies individual distilleries began selling their own products, and as a result tropical blends have slowly and gradually disappeared. In light of all these changes, the goal of the Papalin project is to bring back the ancient tradition of rum blends.