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Mark Reynier, founding father of Renegade Rum Distillery and Waterford Distillery
“I don’t actually care the place rum goes; the identical factor with Waterford – do I care the place Irish whiskey goes? Not likely.” Waterford Distillery and Renegade Rum Distillery founder Mark Reynier has by no means been one to mince his phrases. Reynier is on a terroir‐pushed quest to make the “final single malt whiskey – and the identical with rum”.
Information of Reynier’s intention to construct a distillery in Grenada emerged in 2018, however the thought got here to Reynier round 2012/2013. Grenada grew to become dwelling to the challenge after a fruitless 10‐yr search all over the world.
“I went to Fiji, I went to Mauritius, Réunion, after which all the way in which down the Caribbean, and there simply weren’t any distilleries price shopping for,” Reynier remembers. “I knew I wished sugarcane as the first supply of flavour. So it grew to become clear I used to be going to should construct my very own distillery.”
The previous managing director of Bruichladdich was no stranger to such a problem. After renovating the Victorian Islay distillery, then changing the Guinness Brewery in Waterford into his “state‐of‐the-art, technological marvel” Irish whiskey distillery, Reynier had discovered a couple of classes in “what to do and what to not do in constructing a distillery”.
ASPIRATIONS INTO REALITY
After being launched to Grenada by means of a contact by way of his finance director at Bruichladdich, Reynier was sure he had discovered the place to show his rum aspirations into actuality. “The second I turned up on Grenada, the second I arrived on the airport, I believed ‘wow, that is it; that is precisely what I’ve been on the lookout for’,” he says. “However I keep in mind driving across the island and pondering ‘effectively, the place is all of the sugarcane?’ And there wasn’t any.”
This introduced the proper “clean sheet” for Reynier’s terroir‐pushed plans. “It gave us the chance to begin fully anew, to propagate, by way of tissue tradition, recent, illness‐resilient, genetically clear sugarcane,” he explains.
Earlier than the distillery might be constructed, Reynier had to make sure the island might domesticate sufficient sugarcane. “We began rising the sugarcane first to show we might truly develop sufficient to make it worthwhile to construct a distillery, so this was all again to entrance,” he says. “In that course of, we bought excellent at rising sugarcane, and we had rigorously synchronised the expansion so we might have sufficient mature sugarcane to permit us to distil all yr round.”
Renegade Rum Distillery in Grenada
Situated close to Pearl, on the north‐japanese facet of the Windward Island – “proper on the Atlantic shore” – the US$25 million Renegade Rum Distillery was designed to take a seat low in order to not obscure the view of the horizon. The distillery homes a pot nonetheless and a column nonetheless, “break up in half” to scale back the skyline of the constructing. “We began with the waste streams first,” Reynier explains. “We first designed a US$2m triple‐cleaning system for the boiler emissions. We constructed a US$2.5m biomass boiler from South Africa to burn the sugarcane leftover. We put in an natural rankine cycle (Orc for brief) to generate electrical energy from that steam – steam additionally runs the stills – and a 3‐tier US$2m water remedy plant to course of the wastewater after distillation. After which we use a pure phytoremediation of that cleaned wastewater by means of the soil, into the mangrove to feed the fish that had been in it. So, it’s a reasonably funky system.”
The pleasure Reynier feels for what he and his crew have completed with Renegade is tangible. “It’s a sport‐changer as a distillery, it reveals you what you are able to do; that is how distilleries ought to be – it’s potential. It’s costly, we very practically went bust, nevertheless it’s the way in which ahead.”
Rum manufacturing officially began on 21 September 2020. Nevertheless, due to delays with Covid‐19, financing and finishing the distillery, Reynier’s rigorously deliberate synchronisation has “gone out the window”. As such, 2021’s output from Renegade is more likely to be round 250,000 litres of alcohol, rising to round 450,000 litres in 2022 “when a few of that synchronisation comes again”. The distillery is constructed to provide as much as 500,000 litres within the pot nonetheless and roughly 1.5m litres within the column nonetheless, “if we wished to, however we don’t”, Reynier says, explaining the utmost quantity on the web site is more likely to be 500,000 litres each year. “That’s most likely optimum for us,” he provides.
SUGARCANE FARMS
The preliminary warehouse has house for 7,000 barrels, and Renegade has about 81 hectares of farmland the place the sugarcane is grown. Two extra sugarcane farms are already being ready, which is able to carry capability as much as round 105ha. “We’re distilling just for ourselves, for our model, Renegade Rum,” insists Reynier, ruling out any risk of third‐celebration proprietary bottlings. Renegade Rum could have “distinctly French influences – we might name it rhum agricole if we wished to”, Reynier gives, however says the primary launch this summer time might be referred to as “pre‐cask”.
“They’ll be obtainable on a terroir‐by‐terroir foundation,” he explains. “So we’re repeating the only farm origin thought from Waterford with full traceability, full transparency, as a result of there may be very, little or no authenticity in rum. In the event you attempt to analysis rum, there’s a dearth of verifiable, inaccurate info. It’s unbelievably devoid of authority. It’s not about rejecting conventional strategies, however shining a lightweight on how rum may be made in a contemporary manner.”
Reynier is first to confess what he’s aiming for at Renegade “received’t be for everyone”, however that’s not his aim. “That is about refinement and purity, and integrity and mental curiosity,” he says. “That is the reply to a quite simple query I requested myself firstly: how on earth are you able to make a very profound rum?”
The distillery is utilizing a number of kinds of sugarcane, grown in several soils and at various altitudes to “maximise flavour variations”. Sugarcane harvests from every discipline might be milled and distilled in isolation earlier than being matured in oak barrels. The primary white rums might be single farm origin bottlings whereas the spirit in barrels matures.
“We should always have one thing barrel‐aged inside two or three years to indicate, and this will even be single farm origin like Waterford, however in the end for assembling right into a cuvée of final complexity. That’s the goal, and it comes from that query I requested myself, with all these outdated farms, how do you get complexity into rum? And my reply was sugarcane grown terroir by terroir, and assembled, and that’s what we’re doing.”
MANY VARIABLES
Renegade Rum Distillery will endeavour to fill as many casks as potential with single farm origin spirits to create “as many variables as potential”. “Like an excellent Bordeaux, or Lafite, it’s not made out of harvesting all of the grapes on the property and placing them in a giant vat, vinifying them then placing it right into a barrel as a homogenous factor, no; they’re made out of particular person wines, optimised to the terroir of the property, harvested individually, vinified individually. Fifty totally different mini wines are made, then 18 months later they’re assembled in various proportions to make the grand vin, or consider Champagne, like a grand cuvée,” Reynier explains.
He admits the method at Renegade is “unashamedly borrowed from the good wines of France”, as a result of “that’s the way you create unbelievable final ranges of complexity”. It’s the tactic that was additionally utilized at Reynier’s Waterford Distillery in Eire. The primary trial spirit runs started in 2015, and final Might the inaugural business Irish whiskey sequence from the agency was revealed: Single Farm Origin. The vary launched with three whiskeys made out of 100% Irish barley: Bannow Island: Version 1.1; Ballykilcavan: Version 1.1; and Ratheadon: Version 1.1.
Renegade’s barrels
“The system we’ve adopted at Waterford of an assemblage, or a cuvée, particular person spirits distilled terroir by terroir, then assembled collectively to create complexity, is identical mannequin that we’re making use of right here in Renegade,” Reynier explains. The Renegade vary will, finally, comprise single farm origin bottlings “as a result of that’s actually enjoyable, fascinating”, which is able to complement a core vary of rums constructed from these particular person types. What that may finally style like continues to be to be decided – “we’ll see what occurs”, Reynier says.
The primary everlasting cuvée of Waterford whiskey, as Reynier likes to name it, might be obtainable this summer time, “the primary product that may give a real reflection of the flavour potential to come back from the distillery”, he teases, conserving additional particulars intently guarded for now.
What’s much more thrilling for him are the outcomes of an instructional examine into whether or not terroir can have an effect on the flavour of whisky – one thing Reynier has lengthy been a agency believer in, however a matter that’s the topic of rivalry within the whisky world.
The outcomes of the three‐yr examine, led by Oregon State College and Waterford Distillery, concluded terroir may be present in barley and single malt whisky. Final month, the peer‐reviewed tutorial examine was revealed in scientific journal Meals, and is the primary paper from The Whisky Terroir Venture. Analysis was carried out by a crew of lecturers from the US, Scotland, Greece, Belgium and Eire, and analysed two barley varieties: Olympus and Laureate.
TERROIR TESTS
The 2 strains had been grown on two farms with totally different environments in 2017 and 2018 – Athy, County Kildare, and Bunclody, County Wexford, each in Eire. Every barley pattern was micromalted and microdistilled in laboratory circumstances to create 32 totally different whisky distillate samples. These had been examined by lab analysts utilizing gasoline chromatography – mass spectrometry – olfactometry, in addition to by sensory consultants.
The outcomes revealed greater than 42 flavour compounds, half of which had been ‘immediately influenced’ by the barley’s terroir.
“The Terroir Whisky Venture was began to handle a criticism aimed toward me that terroir can not exist in whisky as a result of it undergoes too many transformative procedures to presumably have, or display, any terroir impact,” Reynier says, “regardless that there’s a complete appellation contrôlée system for Cognac that’s based mostly on terroir in spirit. However the French have simply taken this with no consideration, there’s been no scientific examine to confirm that terroir exists – till now.”
The one variable within the experiment was the barley varieties. The barley was harvested over two consecutive seasons from 2017 to 2018. Sowing and harvesting of the crops, and micromalting of the barley, was carried out by Minch Malt in Eire. Sixteen kilogram samples had been micromalted following the malting protocol, steeping at particular occasions and temperatures.
Mashing and distillation of the malted barley was carried out by Tatlock & Thomson in Scotland. For this step, round 10kg of every pattern was floor in a lab with a 3‐curler mill. The malt grist was mashed with 28l of scorching water (65 ̊C) after which 14l of scorching water (85 ̊C) in a lab mash tun. The water from every mashing was drained, blended, and round 28l of wort was collected. The wort was then fermented utilizing anchordried distilling yeast for 72 hours, at 32.5 ̊C. After fermentation, the wash was distilled in a lab spirit nonetheless to not more than 76% ABV. For the gasoline chromatography olfactometry periods, panellists had been requested to keep away from spicy meals, smoking and low for no less than one hour earlier than nosing, and to not put on fragrance or sturdy deodorants.
Waterford Distillery in Eire
These assessments had been carried out by six educated panellists: two males and 4 ladies. Statistical evaluation was carried out with JMP Professional software program, utilizing a blended linear method to analyse the sensory information. The examine concluded: “This examine has clearly demonstrated variations within the contribution of the aroma‐energetic volatiles and sensory attributes in these new make spirits, and displays adjustments in barley development in relation to environmental parts, together with soil vitamins and prevailing seasonal climate patterns, and due to this fact reveals a ‘terroir’ impact.”
“You’re the primary individual I’ve spoken to of this: this can be a sport changer,” says Reynier. “That is going to trigger merry hell as a result of now I can wave this little bit of paper on the deniers. During the last 50 years, flavour hasn’t been investigated. Yield and local weather adaptability and illness resistance have been investigated… however the very factor that makes whisky style of whisky, that are the flavour compounds within the barley (in any other case we might use corn or maize or wheat or oats or rye) has taken a again seat.”
He explains the outcomes recommend totally different barley varieties “make little or no distinction” to whisky flavour as a result of “they’re genetically too comparable from the unique propagation”.
“What we’ve got been capable of display is that even with the uniformity of flavour compounds, these varieties reply in a different way to totally different terroir circumstances. So even with the uniformity of flavour, sure environmental circumstances, sure terroir circumstances do increase a number of the flavours which are there.”
The following part of the challenge will examine the identical function of terroir in whisky utilizing evaluation based mostly on Waterford Distillery’s personal business spirit and matured whiskey. The outcomes ought to be revealed in 2022.
OLD VARIETIES
Reynier says he has began cultivating outdated kinds of barley from 1960, from 1900 and from the Center Ages “the place, after all, the yields are appalling, however the flavours are far more fascinating”. The hope is that if the science can establish what these flavours are, it will likely be potential to “breed trendy varieties with outdated flavour compounds from the iridescent period, and that’s actually, actually thrilling, and that’s what we’re engaged on in the intervening time”.
The exploration of terroir can also be being utilized to the sugarcane in Grenada, and Renegade has simply put in its personal gasoline chromatography machine. Shoppers will be capable of use the identical hint‐and‐observe strategies seen at Waterford on merchandise launched by Renegade to create the transparency and authenticity Reynier believes rum so desperately wants.
“Sixty international locations make rum, and yearly they’ve some advertising man saying ‘rum’s going to be the subsequent huge factor’. Nicely, it received’t be, not except you modify one thing,” Reynier says. “In the event you hold banging your head towards the identical factor, it’s the definition of insanity, anticipating a special outcome, and you continue to churn out the identical shit – it ain’t going to be the subsequent huge factor. It would solely be the subsequent huge factor when there may be some authority, some integrity in rum, when that spirit may be taken severely alongside nice whisky, nice Cognac and nice Armagnac, and different nice spirits of the world. I don’t assume it will likely be the subsequent huge factor till there’s a change of attiude, and maybe – maybe – in our personal little manner, we is perhaps the catalyst for that. I hope we’re.”