1,000 miles from anywhere

As we planned to get more rum in cask - one off the decisions was to start ordering containers of casks direct from the US. That meant we could start choosing specifically where we got our casks from and super excited to get our hands on some Heaven Hill, Willett Distillery and Buffalo Trace casks.

We had a little issue - the container went the wrong way round the world and it took well over 5 months before the casks eventually landed at La Plaine St Andre. Now -one of the key things about casks - is that they need to not leak. As soon as they start losing their precious cargo they become garden ornaments.

We knew from past experience that we couldn’t for instance fill the cask with water to get the wood to expand and prevent that leaking. We also know that larger distilleries would often use steam in order to rejuvenate the casks. Which at some point - Matt decided it was worth a crack to use the containers the casks came in as a steam room. A bit of gaffe trape over all the ventilation and a fire hose - all right out in the Seychelles sun and a few days….

Historically - we would lose around 1/3 of all casks that we got delivered just as a result of them drying out on the journey…. We managed to use every one often 70 that were delivered! Total result!