Similar to our visit to Hampden Estate we decided that we needed to visit Worthy Park Estate, the newest distillery on the island. Coming from Montego Bay, this was a haul in comparison to Hampden Estate. Located in Lluidas Vale in the center of the country, we set out in the morning for the valley Worthy Park is in to give us time to navigate the windy hilly roads to get there, and to get some Jerk Chicken and Festivals from Scotchies (if you go to Jamaica get some) for lunch on the way.
The above 3 pictures were taken by my significant other, you can find her on Instagram @ foxyy_mamma
As you can see from the pictures above, the drive down into the valley Worthy Park is located in is breathtaking in its views. You work your way through hilly jungles down a narrow roadway getting glimpses of the sugar cane, hills, and sunshine. This was our view as we drove past freshly planted sugar cane and we were greeted with the below image.
We drove up the road past the sign welcoming us, the distillery itself, and the most unique part of Worthy Park in terms of Jamaica that we will touch on in a bit. Now we were a bit late, so we got to drink the opening punch at the end and watch the video. We went out for a little pre tour activity. Our guide had two volunteers from our group of 9 turn a machine by hand to crush cane to squeeze out the fresh cane juice. With this fresh juice they poured a little bit in our cups to taste by itself (quite delicious). Then they added some Rumbar Overproof and Lime for a delicious and fresh daquiri.
Drink in hand our guide had us get on a tractor as we drove by the proverbial elephant in the room at Worthy Park.
(Note the above pictures of the Worthy Park Sugar Factory were taken by foxyy_mamma on instagram
The sugar industry has been under decline for quite a long time in Jamaica. As per history with their being hundreds of distilleries in Jamaica at one point, there were also hundreds of sugar factories. In the past each distillery would have have its own sugar factory where the waste product from the sugar making process, molasses, was sourced. Of the distilleries on the island, Worthy Park is the only one that grows all of its own cane (9000 acres worth), mills the cane for sugar, and uses the leftover molasses to craft its rum. Cane to glass, they can control the entire process of their raw materials thanks to this and makes Worthy Park a Single Estate distillery. Its all Jamaican Cane and water that forms the base of the product. Past the sugar mill we move now to the distillery itself.
The above picture was taken by Foxyy_mamma on Instagram
As the gate open we walk into the grounds of the distillery itself. Here we can see two buildings off the bat. The left building, as our guide notes, contains the lunchroom for the workers (some yelling from that lunchroom prompted the comment) as well as the changing room. The building on the right contains the fermenters, the still, and the vats to hold the rum after distillation.
Before we talk about the inside of the distillery we need to address the vats right here. Worthy Park is the newest distillery on the island which we will touch on in a bit but these vats help bring that “funk” or “hogo” to their rum in a different way than their other Jamaican counterparts. These are White American Oak vats that the distillery puts molasses, cane juice, and cane stalks from the sugar mill into. Once inside these vats the pop a screen mesh on top to keep out bugs and other things. It’s kind of a pre-fermentation process if you will. This mixture is left to ferment for 90 days! After those 90 days, if they are making high ester rum, the mixture is pumped into the appropriate fermentation tank which we will see in the new few photos as they keep 2 tanks set aside just for high ester batches.
The above image was taken by foxyy_mamma on instagram
Past the fermenters and the rum lab (which we sadly did not get to enter) we come to the still. Worthy Park has a single Double Retort Pot still that you see here they use to craft their various low and high ester rums. Only one still may seem low, but according to our tour guide Worthy Park only uses 30% of their cane production to make rum and, as a brand is to do, encouraged us to buy more so they can make more rum. Its much the same overall process as other rums, fermentation, distillation, high wines, low wines, then condensing. Its then tested to make sure it meets benchmarks.
Seeing this shiny new copper pot still and just one of them I think is a good time for a quick history lesson on Worthy Park. Worthy Park has been making sugar for a long time, since at least 1720. They had a distillery then too with records of rum production from 1741 onwards. One would expect with this rich heritage to have a distillery steeped in the past with old stills, fermentation tanks, etc. Unfourantley, due to the low prices of Jamaica rums in the 50s and 60s due to overproduction the Worthy Park Distillery closed its door in 1960 after having made rum for the past 220 years. However, they continued to produce Sugar at the factory. Fast forward to 2005 and the family that owns the distillery (and has since 1918) decided to get back in the rum making business. They built this state of the art distillery you see in front of you. Being the new kids, so to speak, in the Jamaican rum business might raise some eyebrows with all of these new technology in contrast to Hampden estate. But, both distilleries are capable of and currently making fantastic Jamaican rums, just each is brining their own style and spin in their path to produce it.
From the distillery we moved to the bottling hall in which the workers bottle by hand (for the larger and smaller formats) and with machine help for the more standard sizes.
From the bottling hall we walked over to the ageing warehouse. For some reason I had imagined them having multiple warehouses or a giant warehouse but this was it. No temperature control and most of the ageing being done in ex-bourbon barrels. In the 2nd picture above you can see some wine casks their rum is being finished in, some of which will make its way into the single cask program they are doing. If I can recall the guide they have 14,000 casks in the warehouse with the oldest rums being 18 years old. Some folks were pulling samples for the lab and so we got to see a 2 year old rum pulled from the cask which was much lighter in color than I had imagined. In another interesting note the guide stated that they used their casks 3-4 times depending on wear and tear before they retired them barrels to be sold to someone else.
Note the above pictures of cane just outside the distillery was taken by foxyy_mamma on instagram.
From the distillery we got on a tractor and headed back to the visitor center where we sampled the lineup you see above. I enjoyed them as all the guide went through the specs, how to enjoy them (and the awards they won which I found quite funny). The real surprise was the Rum Bar Cream which is made from Rum Bar rum and 100% real cream. It was no overly sweet which shocked me. They also gave us a little sample of the select to take home with us. This was the end of the tour but since we had been late we got the welcome punch below (which was incredible tasting) and to watch a video about the history of the estate and the sugar harvesting and milling process. Fun fact, they still harvest a chunk of the cane by hand at Worthy Park Estate because some of the cane the machines cannot get to. A fun activity they did before we arrived as well as they had some sugar cane stalks, molasses, and sugar from the mill to sample together that showed you each product throughout the sugar process and how it tasted. The fresh cane was divine.
Worthy Park is, much like Hampden, an distillery worth making a trip to if you find yourself in Jamaica. It is an incredible place and one of the most beautiful I have been.