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What the Chairman of the Board wants, the Chairman of the Board gets.

Saint Lucia is a volcano rising out of the eastern Caribbean Sea. And it’s still moderately active with steam and sulfur venting from the rain-forested mountain slopes. All that fertile volcanic soil is perfect for growing sugarcane. And where you have sugarcane, you have Rum. The island used to be home to several small Rum producers. But in 1976 a few of them gathered together and became Saint Lucia Distillers. Since then they have grown from one blended Rum to producing a range of twenty-five award-winning spirits.

Chairman's Reserve was invented by Laurie Barnard in 1999 — then Chairman of the company — to prove that Saint Lucia had premium Rum to offer the world. Since then it’s won two-dozen medals at international festivals, so I guess the point was well-made. It’s a blend of Rums from the smaller distilleries on Saint Lucia using pot-stills. But perhaps the most interesting thing is that the Rum is aged in very specific ex-Bourbon casks for an average of five years — specifically Jim Beam, Buffalo Trace, and Jack Daniels barrels. Then the spirits are married for six full months.

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