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Release Notes
A single barrel cask strength bottling of a 14yo Royal Brackla, distilled in September of 2000, from a refill hogshead. One of 313 bottles.
Yours Truly
3rd Party Tasting Notes
The nose was complex and interesting - sweet and spicy with some cosmetics and light struck match, plus an array of outdoor impressions (earthy, grassy, ripe fruits, wood sap, twigs and riverbanks). It seemed fresher with water (peach melba yoghurt, leaf mould, washing blowing in the breeze) though one panellist got a rugby player's kit-bag. The palate however had massive intense sweetness and mouth-scorching peppery, gingery heat - panellists reported Vimto concentrate and rhubarb dipped in brown sugar. With water, we found toffee, butterscotch, Old English spangles and ice-cream soda, with a few more masculine hints of mint tic-tacs, old wood and allotments.
SMWS
The Bottler: Scotch Malt Whisky Society
| Established: 1983 |
| Silent since: False |
| Address: Scotland |
| → website |
The Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS), founded in Edinburgh in 1983, is a membership organisation which bottles and sells single cask, single malt whisky. It purchases individual casks from more than 125 malt whisky distilleries in Scotland and throughout the world, bottles them and retails directly to its members. It also runs three private members’ rooms in the UK and in several international locations.
The origins of the Society lie in Phillip “Pip” Hills’ travels around the Scottish Highlands in the late 1970s, during which he sampled several whiskies drawn straight from the cask.
Hills was so affected by what he tasted that, in 1978, he persuaded several acquaintances to share in the cost of a cask from the Glenfarclas distillery. Over time, the group of friends expanded to become a small syndicate and more casks were purchased, bottled and distributed to subscribing members.
Coinciding with the decision to open membership to the wider public in 1983, the Society purchased its first property, The Vaults, in Leith; a building, whose vaulted wine cellars reputedly stretch back to the 12th century.
The Society created a set of members’ rooms there.
In 1996, the Society launched a share scheme for its members, the proceeds from which were invested in the purchase of a London venue.
2004 saw the Society purchase a second venue in Edinburgh – a Georgian townhouse on Queen Street. In the same year, the Society was acquired by Glenmorangie PLC.
To mark the 25th anniversary of its foundation, the Society redesigned its bottles, to include more information and a full tasting note on the front of the bottle.
The origins of the Society lie in Phillip “Pip” Hills’ travels around the Scottish Highlands in the late 1970s, during which he sampled several whiskies drawn straight from the cask.
Hills was so affected by what he tasted that, in 1978, he persuaded several acquaintances to share in the cost of a cask from the Glenfarclas distillery. Over time, the group of friends expanded to become a small syndicate and more casks were purchased, bottled and distributed to subscribing members.
Coinciding with the decision to open membership to the wider public in 1983, the Society purchased its first property, The Vaults, in Leith; a building, whose vaulted wine cellars reputedly stretch back to the 12th century.
The Society created a set of members’ rooms there.
In 1996, the Society launched a share scheme for its members, the proceeds from which were invested in the purchase of a London venue.
2004 saw the Society purchase a second venue in Edinburgh – a Georgian townhouse on Queen Street. In the same year, the Society was acquired by Glenmorangie PLC.
To mark the 25th anniversary of its foundation, the Society redesigned its bottles, to include more information and a full tasting note on the front of the bottle.
from Wikipedia
The Distillery: Royal Brackla
| Established: 1812 |
| Silent since: False |
| Address: United Kingdom |
The Royal Brackla distillery is located in the Speyside area of Scotland, at least according to legendary whisky writer (not infamous child molester) Michael Jackson. However, most other whisky writers place Brackla (the 'Royal' part is optional) in the Northern Highlands region and according to a little survey I did it seems that most certified malt maniacs agree.
Royal Brackla was founded in 1812 by Captain Willian Fraser of Brackla. After operating under the name 'Brackla' for more than twenty years the distillery earned the right to carry the 'Royal' prefix in 1835 when they became suppliers to the court of King William IV. Obviously, the king didn't consume enough whisky, because he died of pneumonia two years later in 1837, leaving the throne of Great Britain to queen Victoria.
Royal Brackla remained in the hands of the Fraser family until it was sold to John Mitchell & James Leict of Aberdeen in 1898 who rebuilt the distillery. John Bisset & Co Ltd. from Aberdeen bought Royal Brackla in 1926 and sold it to SMD in 1943. The distillery was rebuilt again in 1965/1966, at which point they switched from direct firing of the stills to internal heating. In 1970 the number of stills was expanded from two to four. Fifteen years later, in 1985, Brackla was closed.
The distillery reopened again in 1991 and was licensed to John Bisset & Co Ltd. in 1992. In 1993 a semi-official 10yo 'Fauna & Flora' bottling (see label below) was released by United Distillers and in 1998 a 'UD Rare Malts' whisky at 20 years old became available. In the same year the Royal Brackla distillery was sold to John Dewar & Sons - subsidiary of the Bacardi. John Dewar & Sons have released a ten years old official bottling of Royal Brackla in 2004, but apart from that I haven't seen a lot of 'action' on the shelves of liquorists.
Royal Brackla may be a fairly 'low profile' distillery, but it is linked to one of the biggest 'inventions' in the whisky world: blended whisky. An Edinburgh merchant by the name of Andrew Usher joined the company in the 1860's and just started blending.
Andrew used the Brackla malt whisky for the very first blends. These days, most of the malt whisky produced at Royal Brackla is still used for blended whiskies like Johnnie Walker Gold Label and the various Dewar's blends. However, apart from OB's released by UD the occasional bottle from independent bottlers becomes available as well.
If you happen to be in the area for a distillery visit, the nearby 'Cawdor Castle' (made famous by one William Shakespeare as the place where Macbeth allegedly killed King Duncan) might be worth a detour. It dates from the late 14th century but most buildings were added later.
I've only tried half a dozen expressions of Royal Brackla. Almost all expressions I've 'seriously' tried myself (so far) scored around 80 points or higher, so it seems like they know what they are doing there in Cawdor...
Royal Brackla in the new Millenium
2004 - A 10yo official bottling is released. As far as I know, that was the first official bottling of Royal Brackla that was available internationally, although some official bottlings (NAS, 12yo and 16yo) had been available in Italy.
Royal Brackla was founded in 1812 by Captain Willian Fraser of Brackla. After operating under the name 'Brackla' for more than twenty years the distillery earned the right to carry the 'Royal' prefix in 1835 when they became suppliers to the court of King William IV. Obviously, the king didn't consume enough whisky, because he died of pneumonia two years later in 1837, leaving the throne of Great Britain to queen Victoria.
Royal Brackla remained in the hands of the Fraser family until it was sold to John Mitchell & James Leict of Aberdeen in 1898 who rebuilt the distillery. John Bisset & Co Ltd. from Aberdeen bought Royal Brackla in 1926 and sold it to SMD in 1943. The distillery was rebuilt again in 1965/1966, at which point they switched from direct firing of the stills to internal heating. In 1970 the number of stills was expanded from two to four. Fifteen years later, in 1985, Brackla was closed.
The distillery reopened again in 1991 and was licensed to John Bisset & Co Ltd. in 1992. In 1993 a semi-official 10yo 'Fauna & Flora' bottling (see label below) was released by United Distillers and in 1998 a 'UD Rare Malts' whisky at 20 years old became available. In the same year the Royal Brackla distillery was sold to John Dewar & Sons - subsidiary of the Bacardi. John Dewar & Sons have released a ten years old official bottling of Royal Brackla in 2004, but apart from that I haven't seen a lot of 'action' on the shelves of liquorists.
Royal Brackla may be a fairly 'low profile' distillery, but it is linked to one of the biggest 'inventions' in the whisky world: blended whisky. An Edinburgh merchant by the name of Andrew Usher joined the company in the 1860's and just started blending.
Andrew used the Brackla malt whisky for the very first blends. These days, most of the malt whisky produced at Royal Brackla is still used for blended whiskies like Johnnie Walker Gold Label and the various Dewar's blends. However, apart from OB's released by UD the occasional bottle from independent bottlers becomes available as well.
If you happen to be in the area for a distillery visit, the nearby 'Cawdor Castle' (made famous by one William Shakespeare as the place where Macbeth allegedly killed King Duncan) might be worth a detour. It dates from the late 14th century but most buildings were added later.
I've only tried half a dozen expressions of Royal Brackla. Almost all expressions I've 'seriously' tried myself (so far) scored around 80 points or higher, so it seems like they know what they are doing there in Cawdor...
Royal Brackla in the new Millenium
2004 - A 10yo official bottling is released. As far as I know, that was the first official bottling of Royal Brackla that was available internationally, although some official bottlings (NAS, 12yo and 16yo) had been available in Italy.
Trivia:
- In 1835, William IV granted Brackla distillery the right to carry the name 'Royal' Brackla. It was the first of three distilleries to earn that distinction, the others being Glenury Royal and Royal Lochnagar...
- Royal Brackla is the largest dfistillery owned by John Dewar & Sons - a subsidiary of Bacardi.
- The oldest whisky stocks owned by John Dewar & Sons are from 1998; when Diageo sold the Dewar's group to Bacardi the deal did not involve any casks of maturing whisky.
- The Royal Brackla malt whisky is used in blends like Dewar's (of course), Bisset's and Johnnie Walker Gold.
- The production capacity of Royal Brackla has been expanded significantly in recent years, from 2,500,000 litres of pure alcohol per year a few years ago to 4,000,000 litres of pure alcohol per year around 2011...
from Malt Madness
The Owner: John Dewar & Sons
| Established: 1846 |
| Silent since: False |
| Address: 1700 London Road, Glasgow G32 8XR, United Kingdom |
| → website |
John Dewar & Sons Ltd. produces Dewar"s White Label, the best-selling blended Scotch whisky in the United States and one of the top brands worldwide. The firm"s other offerings include the premium Dewar"s 12-Year and Dewar"s Signature, five single malt scotches, and two William Lawson blended whiskies. The company is owned by the privately held Bacardi & Company Ltd. of Bermuda.
In 1987 the Dewar"s trademark was secretly transferred from Guinness to Schenley Industries, a U.S.-based spirits distributor owned by Meshuklam Riklis. Schenley had been distributing Dewar"s in the United States since 1936, and the whisky accounted for half of that firm"s total profits. The company later claimed the move was made to combat lower-priced parallel imports of Dewar"s from other countries. Though Riklis (who owned a 5 percent stake in Guinness) had been given the trademark for free, a short time later the brewing giant paid him $480 million to buy it back, along with his distribution network and the right to sell Dewar"s in the United States.
While Dewar"s sales had tripled between 1960 and 1980, U.S. exports had increased fourfold during the same period, and in 1986 Dewar"s became the top-selling whisky in the United States. In the fall of that year DCL successor United Distillers was acquired by the Guinness Beverage Group in a hostile takeover, after which the firm"s international marketing offices were combined with those of James Buchanan and Company, John Walker and Sons, White Horse Distillers, William Sanderson and Sons, and Pimm"s.
Dewar"s Joins Bacardi Family in 1998
In 1996 the company celebrated its 150th anniversary with a special bottling of whisky and the launch of a Web site that featured games based on the life of Tommy Dewar. The company"s whisky continued to be the top brand in the United States, accounting for some 1.5 million cases of the 9.4 million total sold there during the year.
In 1966 the company won a Queen"s Award for Export Achievement, and in 1969 it began running print advertisements that featured photographs of celebrities under the heading "Dewar"s Profiles." Playing off the phonetic spelling of the firm"s name ("Doers"), the ads spotlighted their subjects" achievements with black-and-white photographs that featured a small whisky bottle in color.
In 1954 the company renamed its aged Victoria Vat brand of scotch Ancestor, which would go on to become one of Dewar"s best-known brands. In 1961 new production facilities were opened in Perth, and during the 1960s the firm began to rebuild and expand its Aberfeldy distillery, completing the work in 1972.
Dewar"s Becomes Top U.S. Whisky in 1986
By the early 1980s some 95 percent of Dewar"s output was exported, with about half going to the United States. In the United Kingdom, where sales were dominated by the Bells brand, Dewar"s had only a 1-2 percent market share, and in 1982 the firm shut down its internal marketing unit there and turned sales over to the firm of Hedges and Butler, who would sell it in part through 8,000 public houses aligned with Bass.
The firm"s new owner had a colorful history of its own, having been founded in 1862 in Cuba and then moving to Bermuda in 1960 after Castro"s revolution. Bacardi rum was the world"s top selling spirit, and the company was the world"s largest family-owned alcoholic beverage maker.
In 1998 the proposed merger of Guinness and Grand Metropolitan to form Diageo plc came under scrutiny from U.S. and European trade regulators, and, to clinch the deal, in March John Dewar & Sons was sold to Bacardi & Co. along with the Bombay Sapphire gin brand for a total of $1.4 billion. Dewars" value was put at nearly three-fourths of the total.
In 1886 Dewar"s whisky won a medal at the Edinburgh Exhibition, which was the first of many such awards it would receive over the years, and in 1888 the firm began exclusively supplying top catering firm Spiers and Pond, whose customers included railways, hotels, and music venues.
In 1891 the company was the recipient of some unanticipated free publicity in the United States when the wealthy Scottish steel magnate Andrew Carnegie gave a small keg of Dewar"s to President Benjamin Harrison. When he was blasted in the press for not supporting American-made products, the Dewar"s name appeared in papers around the country and orders for the firm"s whisky began rolling in.
One of Dewar"s ten children, John A. Dewar, began working for the firm in 1871, and in 1879 he was made partner at the age of 23. The following year the senior Dewar died, and John A. inherited the business. The son was a skilled blender of whisky as well as a talented businessman, and he began to build up the company his father had founded.
In 1881 Dewar"s 17-year-old brother Tommy joined the firm, and in 1885 he was made a partner in John Dewar & Sons. That same year the firm began distribution to London, where whisky had traditionally sold poorly next to spirits like brandy, rum, and gin. Tommy Dewar had a knack for marketing, and though he arrived in town with introductions to only two men, one of whom was dead and the other bankrupt, he made a splash by bringing a kilt-wearing bagpiper to the 1886 London Brewer"s Exhibition. To capitalize on its new notoriety and to emphasize the whisky"s heritage, the firm soon began using a depiction of a traditionally-clad Scotch Highlander on its labels.
Beginnings
Dewar"s origins date to the mid-19th century. Founder John Dewar was born in 1805 in the small village of Dull, near Aberfeldy, Scotland, where he grew up on a farm. After an apprenticeship as a joiner, he moved in his early 20s to Perth, where he began working for his uncle"s wine and spirits wholesaling firm. He became a partner in 1837 but in 1846 decided to go into business on his own and began blending whisky from several different producers to give it a mellower flavor. Dewar was one of the first to sell his beverage in a glass bottle with the brand name embossed on the front, rather than in a ceramic container.
In 1892 Tommy Dewar began a two-year sales trip to 26 countries around the world. The journey resulted in contracts with 32 new sales agents and the publication of Ramble "Round the Globe, an account of his travels that was spiced with the pithy sayings ("Dewarisms") he was becoming known for.
In 1893 Queen Victoria awarded a Royal Warrant to John Dewar & Sons, which officially recognized the firm as a supplier to the crown, and in 1895 the company established a U.S. office in New York. Three years later Dewar"s commissioned the first-ever motion picture advertisement for a beverage, which was produced by the Edison Company and projected onto the roof of a building in New York"s Herald Square. A few years later the company would also make films that documented the process of blending its whisky.
In 1929 John A. Dewar died, leaving an estate worth some £4.5 million, and less than a year later his younger brother Tommy also passed away, leaving £5 million. The firm had recently recorded profits of more than a million pounds per annum.
The repeal of U.S. prohibition in 1933 returned Dewar"s whisky to that major market, but with the start of World War II in late 1939 the British government ordered distilleries to produce only one-third of their previous year"s production to conserve barley. The company was forced to lay off its sales force as it rationed orders at home and abroad, and production at the Aberfeldy distillery was later halted for a time. With the war"s end in 1945, production began to return to normal levels.
In 1915 John Dewar & Sons merged with the large whisky-blending firm of James Buchanan to form Buchanan-Dewars. The company"s new partner had been founded in London in 1884 and produced the popular Black and White brand.
In 1920 the United States prohibited the sale of alcoholic beverages, which put a damper on sales, but the company continued to grow, and between 1919 and 1923 bought a total of six distilleries to supply whisky for its blends, including facilities in Ord, Parkmore, Pultney, and Aultmore.
Merger with DCL in 1925
In 1925 Buchanan-Dewars merged with the publicly traded Distillers Company Ltd. (DCL). Created in 1877 by the merger of six distillers, DCL had grown over the next half-century to become Britain"s leading spirits conglomerate. Following the subsequent acquisition of the John Walker distilling company (makers of Johnnie Walker scotch), Dewar"s parent company would own the three leading blended whisky producers, and it continued to acquire other major names like White Horse Distillers over time.
Aberfeldy Distillery Opens in 1898; White Label Scotch Debuts
Dewar"s had traditionally purchased whisky for its blends from other producers, but in 1898 the company opened a distillery of its own in the small village of Aberfeldy. The custom-built facility consisted of a long row of buildings that allowed for continuous distillation, with barley coming in at one end and casks of whisky going out the other. The distillery utilized water from the River Tay and was positioned on a train line to the firm"s headquarters in Perth. Soon after it opened the company introduced Dewar"s White Label Scotch, which was a blend of ten whiskies with the Aberfeldy variety at its heart, created by renowned whisky blender A. J. Cameron.
In 1900 the increasingly prominent Dewar brothers were both elected to the British Parliament. Tommy, who had begun serving as Sheriff of London in 1897, represented the Conservative party, while brother John was a Liberal. A year later Tommy Dewar was knighted by King Edward VII, who also granted Dewar"s its latest royal warrant. (It would receive one from each successive monarch.) Both Dewar brothers would ultimately be granted the status of Lords. The colorful Tommy Dewar, whose observations included statements like "a teetotaller is one who suffers from thirst instead of enjoying it," soon became the third Briton to purchase an automobile.
International expansion continued in the 20th century, with sales offices added in Sydney and Melbourne, Australia, and Calcutta, India in 1902. In 1908 the firm"s new office, Dewar House, was opened in London"s Haymarket, and three years later the company erected the largest mechanical neon sign in Europe on the Thames embankment. The 80 foot tall advertisement showed the firm"s Scotch Highlander mascot "bending an elbow" with a glass of Dewar"s.
In 2003 the firm"s sales declined by 10 percent, from 84.2 million pounds to 75.7 million pounds, due to poor results in France, Spain, and Venezuela. A year later Dewar"s signed Scottish actor Sean Connery to appear in ads for Dewar"s 12-Year Old Scotch. The 74-year-old former James Bond star would deliver the new slogan, "Some age, others mature."
The company celebrated its 160th anniversary in 2006. Dewar"s was operating distilleries in Aberfeldy, Craigellachie, Brackla, Aultmore, and MacDuff to produce whisky for its blends, as well as limited-edition single malt scotches.
In the spring of 2000 the firm opened a new £2 million visitor"s center at the Aberfeldy Distillery. Dubbed Dewar"s World of Whisky, it would play host to some 30,000 visitors per year. The year 2000 also saw completion of the company"s £8.5 million refurbishing of a Glasgow bottling plant which had been closed for 13 years. When the Diageo bottling contract ended in June it began packaging Dewar"s and Lawson"s whiskies.
In late 2000 two shipping containers of Dewar"s 12-year-old scotch were stolen from a dock in Scotland. The 24,000 bottles lost were valued at nearly $1 million. Dewar"s subsequently joined a coalition of spirits makers that were working to combat similar thefts.
Dewar"s 12 Introduced in 2000
In 2000 the premium Dewar"s 12-Year Old Scotch brand was introduced to strong sales, and other deluxe variations followed including a 15-year blended malt. Less than two years after the Bacardi acquisition, the company had gone from ranking eighth in global whisky sales to fifth, with sales of Dewar"s rising to 3.5 million cases per year and Lawson"s to 1.1 million. In addition to its continuing U.S. sales leadership, Dewar"s was also ranked near the top in several other countries including Spain and Greece. The Lawson brand was popular in France, Spain, Portugal, and Mexico.
Following the acquisition, John Dewar was combined with earlier Bacardi purchase William Lawson Distillers Ltd. to form John Dewar & Sons, Ltd., which would be based in Glasgow. A smaller distillery, Royal Brackla, was purchased at this time as well and folded into the company. Diageo would bottle Dewar"s through mid-2000, after which time this function would be taken over by Bacardi.
The Dewar"s name had lost much of its luster in recent years due to Guinness" focus on the Johnnie Walker and B brands, which had stronger global sales. In October 1999 Bacardi relaunched the firm"s whisky with new label graphics and new advertising targeted at younger drinkers. The $20 million ad campaign updated the "Dewar"s Profiles" series and also used new ads depicting the familiar Scottish Highlander in various modern settings, such as shirtless, with a surfboard and sunglasses.
More than a century and a half after its namesake began blending whisky in Perth, Scotland, John Dewar & Sons, Ltd. continued to produce fine distilled beverages. The firm"s flagship brand, Dewar"s White Label, was the best-selling whisky in the United States and also popular in other countries around the world. With the backing and distribution muscle of new owner Bacardi, the company appeared well-positioned for many more years of success.
Trivia:
- John Dewar & Sons operates Aberfeldy, Aultmore, Craigellachie, Macduff and Royal Brackla distilleries.
from answers.com
The Owner: Bacardi
| Established: 1862 |
| Silent since: False |
| Address: Front Street, Hamilton, Bermuda |
| → website |
Bacardi is a family-controlled spirits company, best known as a producer of rums, including Bacardi Superior and Bacardi 151. The company sells in excess of 200 million bottles per year in nearly 100 countries. The company"s sales in 2007 were US$5.5 billion, up from $4.9 billion in 2006.
Brands
The Bacardi legacy lives on in Santiago and Havana through their grand buildings and historic significance. The Bacardi Building (Edificio Bacardi) in Old Havana is regarded as one of the finest art deco buildings in Latin America.
Despite focusing on the middle and lower end of the price spectrum, some Bacardi rum offerings have achieved a modicum of success at international spirit ratings competitions. For example, its eight-year anejo rum earned gold medals at the 2008 and 2009 San Francisco World Spirits Competition.
Bacardi has made several acquisitions to diversify away from the eponymous Bacardi rum brand. In 1992 Bacardi acquired Martini & Rossi, the famous Italian producer of Martini vermouth and sparkling wines. In 1998, the company acquired Dewar"s scotch and Bombay Sapphire gin from Diageo for $2 billion. Bacardi acquired the Cazadores tequila brand in 2001, and in 2004 purchased Grey Goose, a French made vodka, from Sidney Frank for $2 billion. In 2006, Bacardi purchased New Zealand vodka brand 42 Below. Other associated brands include the U.S. version of Havana Club, Drambuie Scotch whisky liqueur, Disaronno Amaretto, Eristoff vodka and B&B, Benedictine liqueurs, as well as the Canadian exclusive alcopop Rev.
Bacardi drinks are not found in Cuba today. The main brand of rum in Cuba is called Havana Club, a formerly private company nationalized by the government. Drinks now made in the former Bacardi distillery are sold in Cuba under the name Caney.
Bacardi and Cuba today
Bacardi has faced criticism and legal problems for supposedly attempting to falsely convince consumers they were purchasing rum made in Cuba rather than just marking its heritage. Bacardi adverts in Spain, since 1966, had described a popular combination of rum and coke as "rum and coke". However, after 1998, it began to describe the drink as Cuba Libre - literally translated as "free Cuba" which is the original name of the drink and how it"s mostly called in Latin America. In this instance, Bacardi faced a legal ruling from the Spanish Association of Advertising Users which forced the company to stop the advert. They concluded that it could "mislead the viewer as to the true nature of the product" as the advert contained so many pieces of Caribbean imagery, one might conclude it came from Cuba (Ospina, p79). Bacardi continues to fight a war in the courts with the Cuban government of the rights to trademarks around the world.
Bacardi, despite having no business tie (in terms of production) to Cuba today, have decided to re-emphasize their Cuban heritage in recent years. This is mainly due to commercial reasons; facing increased competition in the Rum market from the now international brand Havana Club, the company concluded that it was important for sales to associate their rum with Cuba. TV adverts with slogans of "Welcome to the Latin Quarter" are but one example of this. In 1998, under the distinctive bat logo, the phrase "company founded in Santiago de Cuba in 1862" was added.
The 1880s and 90s were turbulent times for Cuba and the company. Emilio Bacardi, eldest son of Don Facundo, was repeatedly imprisoned in a Spanish prison for (legitimate) suspicions of running a rebel financing and support network during the Cuban War of Independence.
Emilio"s brothers, Facundo and Jose, and his brother-in-law Henri (Don Enrique) Schueg, remained in Cuba with the difficult task of sustaining the company during a period of war. The women in the family were refugees in Kingston, Jamaica. After the war and the U.S. occupation of Cuba, "The Original Cuba Libre" and the Daiquiri were both born with Bacardi rum. In 1899, US- General Leonard Wood appointed Emilio Bacardi Mayor of Santiago de Cuba.
Facundo Bacardi, a wine merchant, was born in Sitges, Catalonia, Spain in 1814 and emigrated to Cuba in 1830. During this period, rum was cheaply made and not considered a refined drink, one rarely sold in upscale taverns. Don Facundo began attempting to "tame" rum. After experimenting with several techniques he hit upon filtering the rum through charcoal, which removed impurities. In addition to this, Facundo aged the rum in oak barrels, which had the effect of "mellowing" the drink.
Moving from the experimental stage to a more commercial endeavor, he and his brother Jose set up shop in a Santiago de Cuba distillery they bought in 1862; that distillery housed a still made of copper and cast iron, and was in a building in whose rafters lived fruit bats.
Bacardi is headquartered in Hamilton, Bermuda and has a 16-member board of directors led by the original founder"s great-great grandson, Facundo L. Bacardi. The President Bernard F. Ramirez and Co-President Charles M. Hernandez, also play a large part in production and sales.
First century
The Bacardi Building in Havana, Cuba.
In 1912, Emilio Bacardi traveled to Egypt where he purchased a mummy for the future Emilio Bacardi Moreau Municipal Museum in Santiago de Cuba, a mummy still on display. In Santiago, his brother Facundo M. Bacardi continued to manage the company along with Schueg, who began the company"s international expansion by opening new bottling plants in Barcelona and New York City. The New York plant was soon shut down due to Prohibition, yet during this time Cuba became a hotspot for US tourists.
Embittered Bacardi helmsman Jose Pepin Bosch bought a surplus B-26 bomber with the hopes of bombing Cuban oil refineries (the bold plan was foiled when a picture of the bomber appeared on the front page of The New York Times). He was also allegedly involved in the CIA plot to assassinate Fidel Castro; documents uncovered during Congressional investigations into John F. Kennedy"s death bring to light a message outlining how he had plans to assassinate Castro, his brother (Raul Castro) and Che Guevara. The RECE (Cuban Representation in Exile) also receives funding from Bacardi family members.
More recently, Bacardi lawyers were influential in the drafting of the 1996 Helms-Burton Act which sought to extend the scope of the United States embargo against Cuba. In 1999 Otto Reich, a lobbyist in Washington on behalf of Bacardi Rum, drafted section 211 of the 1999 Omnibus appropriations act, a bill that became known as the Bacardi Act. Section 211 denied trademark protection to Cuban businesses products expropriated after the Cuban revolution, a provision keenly sought by the Bacardi family. The act was aimed primarily at Havana Club brand in America, which had been registered by the Cuban government. Section 211 has been challenged un-successfully by the Cuban government and the European Union in US courts; however, the act has been ruled illegal by the WTO (August 2001). The U.S. Congress has yet to re-examine the matter.
Castro
Portuondo and other Bacardi family members initially supported the Cuban revolutionaries, including Fidel Castro and the broader M-26-7 movement: Bosch personally donated tens of thousands of dollars to the movement, and acted as an intermediary between the revolutionaries and the CIA to assuage the latter"s concerns. Family members, employees and facilities were put to use by the movement, and the company supported the revolution publicly with advertisements and parties. But their support turned to opposition as the pro-Soviet Che Guevara wing of the movement began to dominate, and as Castro turned against American interests.
The Bacardi family (and hence, the company) maintained a fierce opposition to Fidel Castro"s revolution in Cuba in the 1960s. The Bacardi family and company left Cuba after it became clear that Castro was serious about his pledges for change; in particular, in nationalizing and banning all private property on the island as well as all bank accounts. However, the company had started foreign branches a few years prior to the revolution; the company moved the all important Bacardi international trademarks out of the country to the Bahamas prior to the revolution as well as constructing a plant in Puerto Rico after the prohibition era to save in import taxes for rum being imported to the US. This helped the company survive after the communist government nationalized all Bacardi assets in the country.
Bacardi family members had close ties to the US political elite, as well as organizations of state such as the CIA. The family funded various Cuban exile organizations such as CANF.
In the 1920s, Emilio opened a new distillery in Santiago. During this decade, the art deco Bacardi building was built in Havana and the third generation of the Bacardi family was entering the business. Facundo Bacardi invited US-Americans (still subject to Prohibition) to "Come to Cuba and bathe in Bacardi rum." A new product was introduced: Hatuey beer.
The "Cathedral Of Rum" at the Distillery in Puerto Rico near San Juan.
Bacardi"s transition into an international brand was due mostly to Schueg"s "business genius"; Schueg "branded Cuba as the home of rum, and Bacardi as the king of rums" and moved production overseas, first to Puerto Rico (which enabled rum to be sold tariff-free in the U.S. after Prohibition), and then to Mexico. Those changes were accompanied by a new brand name: Ron Bacardi ("Ron" is the Spanish word for rum). Several trademark disputes went to court during this time regarding uses of the Bacardi name on rum produced outside of Cuba.
During the World War II years the company was led by Schueg"s son-in-law Jose "Pepin" Bosch. Pepin founded Bacardi Imports in New York City, and was named Cuba"s Minister of the Treasury in 1949.
Trivia:
- Ernest Hemingway ordered his daiquiris with Bacardi White Label rum and mentions Hatuey beer in two of his works: To Have and Have Not and The Old Man and the Sea.
- Bacardi had architects Ludwig Mies Van Der Rohe and Felix Candela design office buildings and a bottling plant for them in Mexico City during the 1950s. The building complex was added to the tentative list of UNESCO"s World Heritage Site list on November 20, 2001.
from Wikipedia