Single Traditional Column Rum : The Whisky Exchange

Modernisation came early to the rum industry, with column stills replacing pot stills throughout the 20th century. Many distillers have since stuck with these old columns, making lighter styles of rum than they could with a pot still. The resulting rums, which are still packed with flavour, are Single Traditional Column Still rums: made at one distillery using old-fashioned column stills. Discover more »

Single Traditional ColumnRum

While rum has almost always been a blended spirit, bringing together both lighter and weightier spirits for a balanced and nuanced result, the individual components are masterpieces in themselves. Single Traditional Column rums are the middle point of the rum distillation spectrum, slotted in between dark and rich pot-still, and light and zesty Modernist spirits, giving the best of both worlds.

The distinguishing factor between our classification of Single Traditional Column and Single Modernist rums, both of which are made in column stills, is the number of columns the still has. While Modernist rums use stills that can have three or more columns, Traditional Column stills have only two. The number refers to the amount of columns with different functions, and while many producers will physically have just two, others may have extra columns that repeat the functionality of one of the two types: analyser and rectifier.

With just this pair of column types, the distiller is able to select the flavours they wish to produce and distil to a high strength, but they cannot purify the spirit as much as with a modern multi-column still. While at first that might sound like a bad thing, those impurities are flavour, giving Traditional Column spirit more depth and character.