The Long Pond distillery was founded in Trelawny in 1753, some 12 miles from Hampden, and is named after a mountain in the north of Jamaica. Seagram’‘s CEO Samuel Bronfman bought the distillery from the Jamaican government in the 1940s and began producing Captain Morgan there in 1944. After Seagram was disbanded and the Captain Morgan brand bought by Diageo, Long Pond joined National Rum of Jamaica, a company owned by the Jamaican government, Demerara Distillers Limited and Maison Ferrand. The distillery was closed from 2012 to 2017 and was almost destroyed in a fire in 2018. Thankfully, the damage was not too serious and the distillery’‘s John Dore pot stills and Blair column still continue to operate today, producing various profiles of very popular rums.

Vale Royal is a rum distilled at Long Pond in 2003 and bottled by Velier in 2018, matured for 15 years in oak casks. Continental Flavoured, one of the four categories used in Jamaica, corresponds to rums with an ester content of 700-1,600 grams per hectolitre of pure alcohol and the TECA mark between 1,200 and 1,300 g/hlpa. This is a blend of nine casks producing 2,848 bottles. Velier was founded in Genoa by Casimir Chaix in 1947. It was originally a small, family-run business specializing in the import and distribution of wine and spirits. Luca Gargano, a former representative for Saint James and serious rum collector and enthusiast, bought the business in 1986 and began bottling whisky first in 1992 and then rum in 1996. Rums selected by Velier are only ever aged in a tropical climate, which explains both their concentration and the high angels’’ share. They are generally bottled at cask strength or just below. The company’’s selections from Diamond’’s vaults as well as the Caroni bottlings and the bottlings from various distilleries in Jamaica, Barbados and other countries have played a key role in rum’’s history and are today some of the most sought-after in the category.