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.

A Longpond 14 year old distilled in 2005 and bottled in 2019 for the Habitation Velier range. Distilled in a double-retort Forsyths still depicted on the label, it is marked TECA (Tilston Estate Continental A), meaning it has an ester content of 1,200-1,300 g/hlpa. 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.