Plantation Pineapple Stiggins’ Fancy Rum was just named “Best New Product” at the 2016 Spirited Awards on Sat, July 23 at Tales of the Cocktail, a spirits and cocktail festival which this year was attended by more than 20,000 industry professionals and spirits enthusiasts. Maison Ferrand, the house that produces Plantation Rum, is the only company to receive this prestigious honor two times at Tales of the Cocktail. In 2012, Maison Ferrand won Best New Product for Pierre Ferrand 1840 Original Formula Cognac and in 2013, Pierre Ferrand Dry Curacao was a finalist for the same award.
Alexandre Gabriel, owner and cellar master of Maison Ferrand, is driven by a quest for excellence. The award honors the result of years of hard work. “These spirits are my life,” he says. “The fruit of a passion shared by a team that is on a mission. Our intense focus is perhaps what sets Pierre Ferrand, Plantation and Citadelle Gin apart from other spirits. I am grateful from the bottom of my heart to my entire team, as well as to the jury of Tales of the Cocktail for this wonderful distinction. Our mission is to amaze and bring pleasure through spirits of excellence and taste. We are a small but passionate team and the only company to receive top prize twice in the history of Tales of the Cocktail. Considering the level of competition this year, we receive this honor with great humility and are encouraged to continue the hard work. Indeed, we are currently working on new products that will surprise you all!”
The story of Plantation Pineapple Stiggins’ Fancy never included plans to market it. Indeed, it was a rum resulting from research that Alexandre Gabriel and his small team undertook along with his friend and oft-collaborator, David Wondrich. The two friends wished to create a pineapple rum, one similar to the favorite drink of Reverend Stiggins which is a character in Charles Dickens’ Pickwick Papers. Pineapple rum unfortunately disappeared in the late 19th century but by digging through old recipes and reinterpreting ingredients, Gabriel, Wondrich and the team ended up producing a special rum, named in honor of Reverend Stiggins, that they then shared with their friends at Tales of the Cocktail in New Orleans in 2014.
Gabriel explains how Stiggins’ Fancy came to be: “The pineapple rum experiment turned out delicious and we thought we would enjoy it, share it with our friends at Tales of the Cocktail and in New Orleans and then we would move on to other exciting experiments. We didn’t expect the overwhelming amount of praise from bartenders and aficionados who began to harass us to produce more. So we decided to make another batch and share it with even more friends and the rest is history.”
IMAGES/VIDEOS
This video featuring Gabriel and Wondrich reveals the work that goes into making Plantation Pineapple Rum: https://youtu.be/dYdei9uq6jo
High resolution bottle shot (photo credit: Maison Ferrand): https://www.dropbox.com/sh/lujno8m0kvtmdy1/AAAMBM5tQ7eHwaD4ZDcHyPvPa?dl=0
The 1824 Manhattan, made by Yannick Bucco, co proprietor of Willie Carter Sharpe bar in Montpellier, France: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0MwCqY7K9is&feature=youtu.be
Plantation Pineapple has also won “Best in Class” at the Miami Rum Festival 2015 and received a score of 94/100 by Drink Spirits magazine. Due to the seasonality of the special Queen Victoria pineapples used, Plantation Pineapple Rum is available as an annual limited edition item with delivery in April/May and July/August each year. Plantation Pineapple Stiggins’ Fancy Rum is available nationwide with a suggested retail price of $34.99/750ml.
TASTING NOTES, Plantation Pineapple Stiggins’ Fancy Rum (40% ABV/80 proof)
Delicious rich ho-go rum bouquet with a touch of smoke married with aromatic notes of tropical fruit, Pineapple, delicate citrus peel and a touch of clove. The palate reveals a full bodied rum with a satisfying mouth-feel of ripened banana, pineapple, with spices and a smoky finish. The term ho-go comes from the French term haut-gout, which means “high taste” and is used to describe rums showing a tremendous amount of flavors, due to long fermentation of the molasses and non-rectifying distillation in tiny pot stills.
ABOUT THE BEST NEW PRODUCT AWARD
The Spirited Awards title of “Best New Product” is particularly important because it is awarded by the most important event in its field, Tales of the Cocktail, a festival of educational seminars, events and tastings for the spirits community. This year is the 14th annual Tales, attracting no less than 20,000 bartenders and enthusiasts from around the world. This award recognizes the item that has made the most significant impact on the cocktail and bar industry in the past year. Up for consideration are cocktail ingredients (spirit, liqueur, tonic, bitters, syrup or garnish) that bartenders might use at home or at their bar for improved cocktail service. To be considered for this award, products must have been launched between April 1, 2015 and March 31, 2016 and must be available for purchase.
ABOUT MAISON FERRAND and PLANTATION RUM
Plantation Rum is produced by Maison Ferrand, one of the world’s premier boutique producer of fine spirits and the architect of the artisanal spirits movement. Maison Ferrand has offices and production premises at Château de Bonbonnet in Ars, France and its brands are distributed in more than 40 countries. The brands available in the U.S. include the award-winning: Pierre Ferrand Cognac, Citadelle Gin, Mathilde Liqueurs, Plantation Rum, Landy Cognac, Cerbois Armagnac and Daron Calvados. Deutsch Family Wine & Spirits is the importer of the aforementioned brands to the U.S. For more information about Maison Ferrand, visithttp://www.maisonferrand.com/ or on Facebook.
The award-winning Plantation Rum portfolio includes rums from: Barbados, Guyana, Jamaica, Panama, St. Lucia and Trinidad. They are available in fine restaurants, bars, lounges and liquor stores nationwide. For more information, visit www.plantationrum.com or www.facebook.com/PlantationRum.