Mount Gay release marks Crop Over festival

Rémy Cointreau-owned Mount Gay rum has unveiled a limited edition label for its Eclipse bottle, which will be exclusively available at this year’s Crop Over Festival in Barbados.

Crop Over is an annual festival held on the first weekend of August to celebrate the sugarcane harvest on the island.

To mark the 2023 festival taking place this weekend (4-7 August), the brand has partnered with local artist Rudy to give its Eclipse rum a new look that celebrates the colour and culture of Crop Over.

Inspired by Mount Gay’s love of the festival and Rudy’s Crop Over experience, the limited edition will be available exclusively in Barbados in 350ml, 700ml and one-litre formats.

Antoine Couvreur, Mount Gay’s managing director, commented: “To mark the end of this year’s sugarcane harvest, we wanted to create something exclusive to Barbados.

“The art scene on our island is amazing, so we transformed the Mount Gay Eclipse label into a canvas to showcase this talent to the world.”

Rudy is a self-taught contemporary artist, born and raised in St Michael, Barbados, and is known for his Mount Gay XO bottle interpretations and nostalgic character paintings.

“We have been following Rudy for many years, since his first wonderful Mount Gay XO paintings, and he is a huge artistic talent in Barbados,” said Couvreur. “It was a real pleasure to partner with him on this project and bring the Crop Over festival to life on our bottle.”

Rudy added: “My art in one way or another is influenced by my personal experiences and compliments the aspects of my culture that I enjoy. For the art on the label design, I took inspiration from what you would see at Grand Kadooment or a fete during the Crop Over season.

“It is the sea of people enjoying this unique atmosphere in Barbados. It is the colours, music art, rum and vibrancy of our iconic festival. Mount Gay has always been my go-to rum.

“Now I get to share a project that merges both of the things I am passionate about. This is the art of rum.”

Mount Gay Eclipse is a blend of rums distilled in traditional column and double retort copper pot stills, before being matured for two years in charred ex-American whiskey casks.

First launched in 1910, Eclipse is described as the reference for character, body and aroma of the brand’s style, and offers notes of vanilla, almond, ripe banana and dark chocolate.

Mount Gay recently bottled a PX Sherry-finished rum, which was the sixth limited edition expression in its Master Blender Collection.