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Takamaka opens island cooperage
With the support of the former master of wood for The Macallan, Stuart MacPherson, the Seychelles rum producer is about to create skills, jobs, and fresh flavours with its new mini cooperage.
Being an island distillery, wherever you are in the world, brings its own unique set of challenges. From microclimates to supply-chain logistics, it can require additional steps and adaptations to make it work. But this has never fazed Takamaka; quite the opposite. As the distillery embarks upon its next endeavour, island life has, once again, played positively in its favour.
Brothers Richard and Bernard D’Offay established Takamaka Rum in their homeland, the Seychelles, in 2002, inspired to create rum that captures the flavours of their island home in the Indian Ocean.
In 2020, the Takamaka Distillery at La Plaine St André, on Mahé island, revealed a major upgrade. New stainless steel and copper column stills were installed, giving the distillery the capacity to produce 250,000 litres annually.
Today, Takamaka is ready to reveal its latest upgrade: the introduction of an ‘island cooperage’ at its award-winning distillery, backed by the industry legend Stuart MacPherson (pictured above right), who until 2022 was master of wood for The Macallan. He has enjoyed a long successful career in the coopering business, starting in 1979 at the Clyde Cooperage in Glasgow, Scotland, where he completed a four-year apprenticeship as a cooper. His skills saw him later progress to cooperage manager at Clyde Cooperage in 2001, and play an integral role in the smooth relocation of the cooperage to the North British site in Addiewell in 2002.
“I’m delighted to be collaborating on this coopering project with Takamaka Rum,” enthuses MacPherson, who left The Macallan owner Edrington in 2022 to become an independent consultant. “Their dedication to craftsmanship and passion for quality aligns perfectly with my own values, and it’s exciting to contribute to the creation of a product that’s as rich in history as it is in flavour. It’s a rare opportunity to be part of something so authentic and meaningful.”
New skills on the island
It is an immensely proud moment for Takamaka, in more ways than one.
“As a distillery 1,000 miles away from anywhere, these types of initiatives are exactly what we should be doing,” believes Richard D’Offay, managing director of Trois Freres Distillery. “It brings real opportunity for us as a business, but what I am so proud of is that it puts us in a position to offer apprenticeships for skills that have never existed on our island home.”
This year MacPherson will make multiple trips to the Seychelles to coach the apprentice coopers. Initially it will be Takamaka team members but the aim is to include students from the local technical college. The long-term aims are centred around additional skillsets and career opportunities in the Seychelles, but the new cooperage will also further Takamaka’s sustainable endeavours.
Like most small distilleries, Takamaka ships casks from all over the world. Until now, the team has lacked the skills needed to rejuvenate, fix or create casks, meaning they are turned into tables or décor. The knowledge MacPherson will bring to the cooperage and through its apprentices will eventually give Takamaka the tools to extend the life of its casks – and the knowledge to fix any leaks. Prolonging the life of the casks has a positive environmental impact.
In line with its sustainability goals, Takamaka is also proud to have partnered with Avallen Solutions at the end of 2024. Founded by Tim Etherington-Judge, the company was set up to empower businesses to become more sustainable, to help them discover new opportunities for innovation, and build more prosperous futures. For Takamaka, this partnership signals the company’s longer-term commitments.
The business has always operated with a range of ad-hoc initiatives with aims to have a positive impact on the environment and the local community. But now, together with Avallen Solutions, Takamaka will be able to follow a more structured approach, combining both bigger and smaller projects – such as the island cooperage.
Takamaka is equally excited about the effect the cooperage will have on new product development. “Every single liquid and every cask matters,” Takamaka master blender Steven Rioux told The Spirits Business last year, after being named Blender of the Year at The Spirits Business Awards. Curiosity and flavour drive Rioux’s work, and his pursuit for excellence and new possibilities in rum.
Takamaka’s St André Series is a prime example of the flavour boundaries the brand loves to reach for. The range consists of four rum variants, Pti Lakaz and Grankaz, both blended from agricole style and molasses rums and matured in combinations of new French oak and ex-Port and ex-Bourbon.
“Cask-ageing is an art, and to have Stuart help guide us on this journey is truly exciting,” Rioux enthuses. “While it may be many years until we see the fruit of this labour, having these skills in-house in the long term offers us the opportunity to explore avenues that otherwise would just have never been available.”
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