OnTap Magazine

W hen the O’Neill family boarded a flight to Cape Town for a holiday back in 2017, they didn’t know how life changing it would be. During the flight, Brad and Marisa O’Neill caught sight of the in-flight magazine. The cover advertised an article entitled ‘How to make Mauritian rum’, something the O’Neills saw as a sure sign to make their dream of distilling sugarcane a reality. It all began seven years earlier when Brad’s father Roger passed away. Although Brad and Marisa had never planned to return to Brad’s family farm except for holiday visits, they decided they wanted to continue Roger’s legacy of sugarcane production. After relocating to KwaZulu-Natal in 2010, their focus was on learning to run the farm while raising their three young children. But in the back of their minds was an idea that had been fermenting since their student days: to make rum from the sugarcane on the plantation. They frequently revisited and discussed the idea of making rum and even started researching the process. Then they boarded that fateful flight and decided to take the plunge. UNIQUE TERROIR In January 2018 Brad and Marisa signed up for a rum making course through Distillique, a Gauteng-based distilling supplier and training centre. Later that year they bought their first still and spent the rest of 2018 working on the process, learning about the spirit and tackling the dreaded red tape of the liquor industry. The old garage and staff quarters on the farm were converted into a micro-distillery and in November 2019, Sugar Baron was launched on the centuries-old family farm. Seafield Farm is nestled in the picturesque Mkhuzane Valley at the edge of the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands near Richmond. You arrive at the property through an avenue of indigenous yellowwood trees staggered with flamboyant blooming jacarandas. The unique climate and fertile soil here creates a rich terroir producing the premier quality sugarcane used in Sugar Baron’s rum. When you pop the cork on a bottle of Sugar Baron White Rum, you can smell the sunshine of this valley in it. Of the total 313 hectares of the farm, 210 are under sugarcane, although only about half a hectare of sugarcane per annum is used for rum production. The rest is commercially farmed cane that gets sent to a local mill for sugar production. With trial and error and various tastings, the O’Neills have mastered the yeast and sugarcane type that’s perfect for producing the single origin, single estate, single varietal that makes Sugar Baron rum so special. Currently they produce about 350 bottles a month, with half going into barrels to be aged. A TRADITIONAL PROCESS Sugar Baron follows the traditional agricole method for producing their handcrafted rum. For the rum virgins out there, rhum agricole is the French Caribbean process which uses only freshly crushed sugarcane juice in fermentation, never molasses or with any added sugar during the process. This contributes to the definitive, grassy ‘funk’ of this rum compared to other rum variants fermented from molasses. Fresh sugarcane is harvested first thing in the morning on Seafield Farm and brought to the distillery where it is crushed straight away to preserve its freshness. The biodynamically grown sugarcane is harvested devoid of all tops and leaves, which are left on the fields for compost. Currently, better results are seen with the N59 strain of sugarcane, but they do experiment from time to time with different varieties. “The N59 strain was released in 2019, with longer internodes in dry conditions,” says Brad. “This is beneficial in our changing climate environment. The sugarcanes with red, purple and yellow skins have different characteristics and a more stone fruit- like character than the green sugarcane used in Sugar Baron rum.” The cane is then run through a small crusher which produces the pure, clean cane juice and the leftover fibre is returned to the fields. The cane juice is collected in a fermentation tank and inoculated with a specific yeast strain. Fermentation then takes place for a few days, when temperature, pH and Brix content are monitored to ensure optimal fermentation. Once it has fermented dry, meaning that no residual sugar is left in the wash, it is transferred into the still. ‘Wash’ is the finished product of fermentation destined to be distilled for the first time. The classic piña colada A Sugar Baron event, pre-Covid The track to Seafield Farm When you pop the cork on a bottle, you can smell the sunshine of this valley in it ontapmag.co.za | Summer 2020 | 23