Editor’s note: The distillery’s hours and website have been updated.
A limited edition 20-year dark rum, a six-year white rum and what may be the first-ever persimmon rum liqueur are all part of the Galvez Rum lineup, the newest Louisiana rum brand to enter the market. The Galvez Rum Distillery & Tasting Room officially opened in downtown Jackson, Louisiana, in April.
“It took us a long time to bring this rum out, because we wanted to make a premium product,” says Galvez Rum manager Belinda Brown.
Products include two dark rums: the Founder’s Limited Edition Extra Aged, which blends three different premium aged rums, and the Victory Blend, aged in oak bourbon barrels and finished in sherry and brandy casks. Aged similarly, the Galvez Silver Rum is the distillery’s complex light rum. And Peri’s Persimmon Rum Liqueur is its sweeter spirit, blended with persimmons.
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“It’s the only persimmon liqueur in the world,” Brown says. “It’s done in small batches here with local persimmons.”
The high-end rums are distilled in Panama by partner rum master William Manso and blended and bottled in the Galvez Rum production room by chemist and distiller Elio Villasmil.
Galvez Rum celebrated its grand opening in April with its first annual Galvez Rum Festival, an event featuring back-to-back bands, tastings, cocktails and food trucks. It also included talks about the brand’s namesake, Bernardo de Gálvez, the fourth governor of Spanish Louisiana and an instrumental player in the defeat of the British during the American Revolution. Galvez named the Feliciana Parishes after his wife, Marie-Felicité, who was from New Orleans.
“So it makes sense that we’re here in the Felicianas,” Brown says.
Expect to see other special events in the coming months, like comedy nights and music events, says Regan Sanders, marketing and communications director.
Galvez is housed in a Spanish-style building in downtown Jackson that was once home to Feliciana Cellars Winery. A large bar and plenty of seating give visitors a chance to sample rum flights or sip frozen daiquiris and classic and craft cocktails. Mixologist Andrew David says patrons enjoy the boutique rums’ smooth tastes and complex flavor profiles. Sniff and sample all four in a flight, or order a mojito, old-fashioned, paloma and other cocktails. Several frozen daiquiri options are on offer, too, including strawberry, mango and the Coco Peri daiquiri blended with Peri’s Persimmon Rum Liqueur and Coco Lopez.
The rums are currently only available for purchase in the tasting room, but a plan is underway for distributing them in retail outlets, Brown says.
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The Jackson facility can produce about 400 bottles of rum a day. Galvez’s bottle shape was a custom design, featuring a square body and a neck intended to resemble an architectural column.
Galvez is one of a handful of rum lines founded in recent years in Louisiana, where the centuries-old sugar-cane industry is a natural springboard for rum production. Other lines include Bayou Rum in Lacassine, Wildcat Brothers Distilling in Lafayette and Oxbow Rum Distillery in Baton Rouge.
Galvez Rum is at 1848 Charter St. in Jackson. The tasting room is open Fridays and Saturdays, 2-8 p.m. Tastings can also be scheduled by appointment for groups. Find more information at galvezrum.com.