Traditionally the Dominican Republic rum industry has been well known for three brands commonly referred to as the three B’s; Barceló, Bermudez and Brugal, the last two established since 1852 and 1888 respectively and Barceló, today the best Dominican brand known internationally. However, today they share the Dominican rum industry scene with several others, albeit minor producers. There are only two rum distilleries operating in the Dominican Republic: Alcoholes Finos Dominicanos (AFD) and Brugal & Co. CxA, all other producers either use natural spirits imported or produced by AFD. The Dominican Republic is also known to be a major molasses supplier to rum producers all throughout the Caribbean.

In 2021, the Dominican Republic’s Oficina Nacional de la Propiedad Industrial (ONAPI), the government agency responsible for registering and managing industrial property, including geographical indications and designations of origin, established the requirements to be met in order for a product to be identified as Ron Dominicano, that is, a product denomination of origin. These regulations require among other things that rum producers must harvest their own sugar cane or use either molasses or sugarcane juice from sugarcane grown in the Dominican Republic, that fermentation, distillation and aging of the the alcohol must happen within the country’s borders and that aging must also happen within the country’s borders for a minimum of one year. It also requires that the final product must be at least 37.5% ABV with no more than 5% of volume of organic compounds added after distillation to add desirable aroma, color and/or taste.

Mamajuana is a separate spirit category from rum, typical from the Dominican Republic, but worth mentioning herein as it is often referred to as botanical rum. It is an alcoholic beverage that began as a herbal tea created by the Taino Indians over five hundred years ago for health and medicinal purposes, made from herbs, spices, sticks, barks and honey. Spanish explorers added alcohol to create one of the first distilled spirits in the Americas. Its taste is similar to a spiced rum though distinct because of the maceration of herbs with rum and wine and is typically bottled at 30% ABV which is below the ONAPI requirement for rum. None of the major rum producers below make this concoction, one of the better known Mamajuana brands is Candela Mamajuana which is available in the US.

Alcoholes Finos Dominicanos

Alcoholes Finos Dominicanos (AFD was established in 2010 just outside the town of Consuelo near San Pedro de Macorís as a joint venture between Ron Barceló S.R.L. and Yazoo Investments S.R.L. AFD sources its sugarcane from approximately seventeen thousand three hundred acres grown on its own sugarcane fields as well as from local growers including the Hazim Frappier and Santoni Vivoni families who are also investors in the company. It uses sugarcane juice rather than molasses for its distillates, however, its products are quite different and not considered rhum agricole. They use a single four column still made by Aparatos de Alcohol y Calderería S.A.L. in Spain. Benefitting from its location in a Free Trade Zone, most of its product is exported in bulk to customers in more than thirty three countries within the five continents, producing more than three hundred seventy five different formulas. While AFD does not release an official or exact percentage of their exports, trade data shows that they export the vast majority (80% to 90%) of their production. Since they do not produce a brand of their own, they have no aging facilities.

Yazoo Investments S.R.L.

Was established in 2006 in San Pedro de Macorís when a group of Venezuelan entrepreneurs from Corporacion Alcoholes del Caribe S.A. (CADC) decided to establish an operation in Santo Domingo. CADC, which is part of Corporación Alcoholes y Bebidas del Caribe or Grupo CABC, was established in 1993 in Carúpano, Venezuela but it was not until 2001 when they acquired a distillery from Industrias Pampero that they started distilling different types of alcohol and offering co-packing services for private labels. In 2012 they acquired the firm Lander & Vera S.A., until then makers of the Cañaveral rum brand in Venezuela. They operate a 5-column multi still distillery in San Felipe in the Yaracuy State of Venezuela to produce alcohol and bulk rum used for domestic brands like Roble Viejo, Ocumare, Estelar, and Barrica.

Yazoo Investments S.R.L. co-owns Alcoholes Finos Dominicanos with Ron Barceló S.R.L and the Hazim Frappier and Santoni Vivoni families. They operate under the trade names Rones y Bebidas del Caribe and Rones y Bebidas del Caribe Yazoo. They obtain natural spirits from Alcoholes Finos Dominicanos nearby in San Pedro de Macorís and after diluting to the desirable ABV they age it in American and French oak casks in three aging warehouses on premises.

Ron Barceló S. R. L

In 1929, twenty six year old Spanish immigrant from Mallorca, Spain Julián Barceló and his brother Andrés Barceló arrived in the Dominican Republic. In early 1930 they established Barceló & Co. in San Pedro de Macorís to begin distilling and selling rum. On September 3, 1930, Hurricane San Zenón made landfall in the Dominican Republic and destroyed the distillery, Andrés then left the island to live in Puerto Rico where he later established Barceló, Marqués & Cia. producers of the Palo Viejo rum brand, leaving Julián in the Dominican Republic to rebuild and continue his dream.

In 1950, Ron Barceló was able to position itself locally when it brought to market its white and gold expressions, Barceló Blanco and Barceló Dorado. In 1970 they launched Ron Barceló Añejo which over time became the most exported Dominican rum, and in the 1980s they launched Ron Barceló Imperial, now the flagship Premium Rum among all Dominican rums. In 2010 they launched Barceló Imperial Premium Blend 30th Anniversary celebrating thirty years of the original Barceló Imperial. They also produce Gran Añejo, an aged dark rum and Gran Platinum, a filtered white rum that retains the flavor profile of the aged version.

Their corporate structure changed in 2001 when Barceló & Co. split its domestic and international operations in two entities; Añejos Barceló now known as Ron Barceló S.R.L. and Barceló Internacional S. A. (BAINSA). All domestic activities including the production, aging and international distribution of the Ron Barceló brand are done by Ron Barceló S.R.L. and BAINSA is the corporate export arm created to market and distribute Ron Barceló globally outside of the Dominican Republic. Today Ron Barceló S.R.L. is majority owned by the Spanish spirits marketer Grupo Varma and is directed by a Board of Directors that includes members of the founding Barceló family. BEICA (Bebidas Internacionales C. por A.) headed by Alberto Nogueira, CEO of Ron Barceló S.R.L., is the Dominican consortium formed by the Barceló family and Grupo Varma responsible for the manufacturing side of the business and global operations.

In 2006 Ron Barceló S.R.L. fully acquired the international and local rights to the Ron Barceló brand and today, Ron Barceló S.R.L. is the parent and operating company for the global rum brand, while the legacy entity Barceló & Co. primarily focuses on the agricultural side, such as their sugarcane plantations. International sales and marketing were then handled via strategic partnerships with regional distributors like Grupo Varma in Spain, Disaronno International in the UK and Shaw-Ross in the United States rather than fully owned subsidiaries. In 2010 Barceló S.R.L. stopped distilling and started sourcing their neutral spirits from Alcoholes Finos Dominicanos, a distillery established in 2010 partially owned by them thus being the only Dominican rum made from the fermentation of sugar cane juice instead of molasses.

Ron Barceló is the most exported rum brand in the Dominican Republic. According to International Wine & Spirits Research (IWSR), during 2022 Grupo Varma sold 1,310,900 cases of Barceló Añejo alone, with an estimated value over €224 million. Of their total production, about 50% is sold in Spain and the remainder is sold locally in the Dominican Republic and worldwide.

Brugal & Co. CxA

Before coming to the Dominican Republic in 1897, Spanish immigrant from Sitges, Catalonia Andrés Pelegrín Clemente Brugal Montaner (1850-1931) settled in Cuba around 1870. There he mastered the art of rum making and in 1888 established Brugal, Sobrino & Cia. the year today Brugal & Cia CxA celebrates as the year of its founding. In the midst of the second Cuban War for Independence, in 1897 Andrés Brugal Montaner left Cuba for the Dominican Republic where he the established Brugal & Co. CxA in Puerto Plata, today one of the oldest and most celebrated rum producers in the Dominican Republic, renowned for its double-aged casks and dry flavor profile. Their flagship premium expression, Brugal 1888 is double-aged in ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks.

In 1919 Brugal became the first Dominican rum to sell a pure, light spirit that omitted harsher, cheaper aguardientes. Shortly thereafter, in 1920 they released their first golden aged rum, pioneering the practice of barrel-aging in the country. In 1940 the second generation of the Brugal family introduced the signature netting around the bottles to protect them during turbulent travel, tradition that remains today as an iconic symbol of the brand. In 1952 they launched Brugal Añejo and in 1976 they built a state-of-the-art distillery in Puerto Plata equipped with modern technology and launched Brugal Extra Viejo as the company expanded its repertoire of premium, oak-aged rums.

In 2008 Glasgow based Edrington, owner of the Macallan single malt whisky brand, acquired a majority stake in Brugal propelling the brand to a global, ultra-premium stage while maintaining its Dominican heritage and leadership representation by the founding family's fifth-generation. Brugal uses only locally produced molasses for its distillates using two Spanish built multicolumn tills. While the distillery and blending facilities are located in San Pedro de Macorís on the south coast , the visitor center, aging warehouses and bottling facilities are located in Puerto Plata near the north coast. They transport the distillate from their plant in San Pedro de Macorís to Puerto Plata where, led by Master Blender Jassil Villanueva Quintana who is Brugal’s and the Dominican Republic's first female Master Blender, the aging and blending process is completed. Brugal states that 85% of its rum’s flavor come from its aging process mostly done in ex-bourbon casks, ex-Oloro and Pedro Ximenez sherry European oak casks.

J. Armando Bermúdez & Co.

Bermúdez is the oldest commercial rum manufacturer in the Dominican Republic, established by Venezuelan immigrant born in Villa de Cura, Aragua, Venezuela [1] Erasmo Bermúdez Jiménez (1825–1907). According to statements by his great grandson José Manuel Bermúdez, Erasmo was the son of Gen. Nicolás Bermúdez, a close ally of Simón Bolívar’s Liberation Army during the Venezualan War for Independence (1810-1823). It is not clear the year Erasmo arrived in the Dominican Republic but general consensus is ca. 1849 although one of his great grandsons Carlos A. Bermudez Pippa state it was during the second term as president of Venezuela of Carlos Soublette from 1843 to 1847. According to the Ron Bermudez website, in 1852 Erasmo, who some say was a pharmacist and some say had been a medical student in Venezuela, created a high-alcohol content elixir made from sugarcane and molasses called Amargo Panacea or Panacea Bitter, originally intended to treat ailments and respiratory issues. It quickly became a popular aperitif drank before meals, leading him to establish La Sin Rival Fabrica de Licores, the first spirits factory in Santiago de los Caballeros.

The business grew and Amargo Panacea started to be distributed all throughout the country. In 1863 Erasmo married Petronila Rochet Gómez (1839–1889) and eventually had eight children: Auristela (1865-897), Aquiles (1866-1898), Bárbara María (1867-1950), Erasmo Ramón (1869-1914), José Armando (1871-1941), Petronila (1872-1942) who in 1897 married José María Cabral y Báez, Cristóbal María Felipe (1876-1972) and Manuel María Felipe (1877-1968) all Bermúdez Rochet. José Armando and Manuel started in the rum business together but eventually separated. In the first few years of the 1900s the firm Bermúdez Hnos. existed at Calle España in Santiago dedicated to distilling and general goods import and export. In Manuel María Bermúdez Rochet opened a distillery, though despite also distilling molasses, his business focused on high-grade rectified spirit. Up and until the turn of the 20th Century distillers in the Dominican Republic used pot stills, Manuel was the first to install a continuous distillation column made in France by Egrot y Grangé.

During the Dominican Restoration War (1863-1865), on September 6, 1863 a massive fire razed Santiago to the ground destroying the original La Sin Rival distillery. Erasmo claimed he had nothing to do with the fire supposedly caused by Spanish Army Brig. Gen. Buceta, and requested compensation since he was neither Spanish nor Dominican. The Spanish colonial government compensated Erasmo for the damages, allowing him to rebuild and expand the company. In 1897 José Armando Bermúdez Rochet took over the business from his father and also became a prosperous farmer in Banegas, outside of Santiago de los Caballeros.

In 1927, to bypass regulations that restricted the same entity from simultaneously acting as a brand manufacturer and a distillery, José Armando Bermúdez re-incorporated into two different entities; the bottling and selling company J. Armando Bermúdez & Co., CxA and the manufacturing company Destilería del Yaque, CxA. The distillery’s first administrator was José Armando’s son Domingo Octavio “Minguito” Bermúdez Ramos (1902-1967) who held the position until his death in 1967 and under whose leadership the company transformed into a massive national institution. Domingo did not have any descendants, so he treated is nephew José Armando “Poppy” Bermudez Pippa (1928-2014) like a son whom he sent to Greenbrier Military Academy in West Virginia and and later to college. When he returned to the island in 1950, Domingo made sure Poppy learned all the ins and outs of the business. After Domingo died, in August 1967 his two surviving brothers José Ignacio Bermúdez Ramos (1899–1968) and Aquiles Bermúdez Ramos (1901–1970), decided to hand the administration of the business to Aquiles’ son José Armando “Poppy” Bermudez Pippa (1928-2014) who held the position until 1990. Under his leadership Bermudez became the best selling rum brand in the Dominican Republic.

Destilería del Yaque, CxA stopped distilling operations in 2001 when they started importing natural spirits aged and blended in their aging cellars, the oldest in the country, producing light style rums. Their flagship products include Bermúdez Añejo, Bermúdez Dorado, Palo Viejo [2], and the ultra-premium Don Armando Reserva. They also produce the Kirk & Sweeney rum brand for 3 Badge Beverage Corp. who is the owner and distributor of the brand. Le Kirk & Sweeney was a wooden schooner best known for smuggling rum from the Caribbean to the northeast during the early years of prohibition, particularly to Long Island, New York. The boat is now at the U.S. Coast Guard Museum on Long Island. In the spirit of this rum runner, the Sebastiani family, owner of 3 Badge Beverage Corp, named its brand of premium rums. Their expressions are aged and bottled in small batches at 40% ABV without any additives or sugar dosage. Their Reserva rum is aged between 3 and 12 years with the majority of the liquid in the batch being 12 years old. The Gran Reserva is selected from rums aged between 5 and 20 years, with the majority of the liquid in the batch being 18 years old. The Gran Reserva Superior is selected from rums aged between 6 and 25 years, with the majority of the liquid in the batch being 23 years old. Finally, their XO is solely a 25-year-old rum, bottled at a higher proof than the rest of the range at 65.5% ABV.

Matusalem & Co.

According to information on its website, the history of Ron Matusalem starts with Spanish immigrant from Lloret del Mar in Catalonia Pau Nonell Garriga (1837-1914) who established himself in Santiago de Cuba 1850 and by 1872 had saved enough money to partner with two fellow Spaniards with experience in producing sherry wines and brandy to open a rum factory. His history is similar to that of Facundo Bacardí, who upon arrival in Santiago was learning the trade of merchant for ten years until becoming a wine importer and began experimenting with the rum distillation process to obtain a smoother drink. The acceptance of the so called superior rum they developed was such, that by 1860 there were already more than a thousand distilleries of this product throughout Cuba. One of the first documents that indicate the existence of Nonell’s distillery is from 1885 when the imports section of the Santiago de Cuba commercial magazine states that the brig Clara, from Barcelona, ​​served an order of sixty four quarteroles [3] of wine to Pau Nonell. Already by that time he was producing a rum named Ron Jamaica.

In 1876 Pau Nonell Garriga married his niece Carolina Camp Nonell (1863- ), the daughter of his sister Anna Nonell Garriga ( -1910) and Esteve Camp Nonell ( -ca.1880). Sometime between 1880 and1885 Pau nephews and at the same time brothers-in-law Enric Camp Nonell (1863-1914) and Banjamí Camp Nonell (1869-1958) joined the firm. In 1888 the Dirección General de Administración y Fomento of the Ministerio de Ultramar approved the transfer of Pau Nonell’s liquor brand which included Ron Golondrina to E. Camp & Cia. In 1907 Pau Nonell was already retired living in Barcelona, that year the company name was changed to Camp Hnos. In 1912 Benjami returned to live in Madrid and Enric remained in Santiago running the business until his death in 1914.

When Enric died in 1914 ownership in Camp Hnos. would pass to Benjamí Camp who incorporated it as B. Camp & Cia. The official bulletin of the National Office of Inventions, Technical Information and Trademarks from 1916, show that the products previously produced by Camp Hnos. were then under the name of B. Camp & Cía. Since Benjamí was an absentee owner living in Madrid from the profits received from Santiago de Cuba, management of the company was taken over by his cousin Eduard Camp Vilardebó (1877-1951), the son of Eduardo Camp Nonell (brother of Esteve Camp Nonell) and Júlia Vilardebó.

In 1912, Eduard Camp married Justina Álvarez Lefebre the daughter of Evaristo Álvarez Prieto. In 1925 Evaristo and his son Claudio Álvarez Lefebre took over the reigns of the company which name was then changed to Álvarez, Camp & Cia. S en C, name that was retained until 1959 when the company was expropriated by the Fidel Castro regime. In 1942 management was assumed by Claudio Álvarez Soriano the son of Claudio Álvarez Lefebre’s and his wife Maria Soriano Gil. In the 1951 Eduard Camp died and in 1955 so did Claudio Álvarez Lefebre and six months later in 1956 his son Claudio Álvarez Soriano also passed away. As a result of the 1959 Cuban revolution, Claudio Álvarez Soriano’s wife Carmen Delfina Salazar left Cuba with her four children and settled in Miami.

Due to a decades-long trademark and family feud and a short period of production in Puerto Rico, the brand faded in the late 20th century. The court case Ron Matusalem & Matusa of Florida, Inc., a Florida corporation, plaintiff - counter defendant, appellant, v. Ron Matusalem, Inc., a corporation of the Commonwealth Of Puerto Rico and United Liquors Corporation, a Florida corporation, defendants - counter plaintiffs, appellees, Manuel A. Guarch, Jr. and Luisa Alvarez Soriano, counter defendants decided by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit on May 13, 1989 clearly states all the developments and issues that the family went through after leaving Cuba. After settling the case and the family disputes that caused severe business disruption, in the 1990s Claudio Álvarez Salazar relaunched the company in the Dominican Republic where Ron Matusalem is produced and aged today under the leadership of his son, fifth generation family member Claudio Álvarez Renaud.

Today operating as a non-distilling producer, they produce Ron Matusalem Gran Reserva 15, Ron Matusalem Gran Reserva 23 launched in 2010, Ron Insólito, the limited production Matusalem Sublime and their latest expression launched in 2024 Matusalem Lefebre aged in French barrels.

Vinicola del Norte S. A.

Vinicola del Norte S. A. was initially established in Puerto Plata in 1962 as a wine producer and distributor by Juan Brugal Pérez with the financial backing of the of Brugal & Cía., Luis Arzeno, Miguel Ripoll, Plácido Brugal, Dr. Osvaldo Brugal and Manuel Abbott. Today, although its manufacturing facilities where they produce rum, whisky, liqueurs, wine, gin and other products are in Puerto Plata, its administrative offices are located in Santo Domingo. In 2009 they acquired the Ron Macorix brand which had been established since 1899 by the Carrión family of San Pedro de Macorís.

It is a non distiller producer which rum base purchased locally is made from sugar cane and aged on their premises. Their product line includes aged rums, flavored rums and blends that combine different rum styles including the Don Rhon brand which features their flagship dark rum, aged for at least 12 years in American white oak barrels. They also distribute Rum Barbancourt in the Dominican Republic.

Bodegas Cochón Calvo, S. A.

Cochón Calvo & Cia. was established in Santo Domingo by Spanish immigrant from Pontevedra, Galicia Claudino Cochón Calvo (1892- ) who arrived in the Dominican Republic from Puerto Rico where he had a soda manufacturing business. In 1916 Cochón-Calvo & Cia. established the Colón Distillery on the west bank of the Ozama River and started producing rum brands like Ron Don Jorge, Ron Champion, Ron Caribe, Ron Caribe Viejo and Ron Brandy. It was not until 1920 that Cochón-Calvo & Cia. started producing Ron Siboney, label that eventually became their mainstay and flagship brand. According to an interview with José Alfonso Cochón Jiménez in 2025, Ron Siboney Reserva Especial was the first three year aged rum in the Dominican Republic at a time when all other local rums brands were aged only one year.

Claudino then brought three of his brothers who were at the time were living in Uruguay, to help in the business. They were very successful in developing and grow the Ron Siboney to be one of the leading brands in the country. In 1951 Claudino decided to return to live in Spain and left one of his brothers, José Cochón Calvo (1908-1980) in charge, duties he successfully performed for the next twenty nine years until his death. During a period of time of tumultuous political issues in the Dominican Republic, in the early 1970s José’s two brothers decided to return to live in Spain leaving him solely in charge. Finding himself alone, José looked into the possibility of selling part of the company and entered into conversations with Charles Bluhdorn of Gulf+Western who had recently acquired Central Romana from the South Porto Rico Sugar Co., however, even though Mr. Bludhorn showed interest in the acquisition, the deal did not go through. He then brought in as partners a group of Spanish investors and with the new found capital a new distillery called La Isabela was built, the aging warehouses were expanded and relocated to the San Isidro area near Santo Domingo and in terms of sales they became the number two firm in the country behind Bermúdez.

Unfortunately, on April 17, 1980 a fire that destroyed the distilling plant claimed José’s life and four others including his secretary. Without José’s leadership and the lack of expertise in the new management, who shortly after his death changed the corporate name from Cochón Calvo & Cia. to Licorería Siboney S.A., the company fell into difficult financial times that resulted in its closure in 1986 when the Banco Central de la República Dominicana foreclosed on its assets for unpaid debt. Ron Siboney then disappeared from the market, but in the 1990s, José’s grandson José Alfonso Cochón Jimenez, who had become an attorney but had always envisioned returning to the rum business and reestablishing the Ron Siboney name, began registering the brand again. In November 2004, armed with the family’s formula and the right to the Ron Siboney’s name, José finalized conversations with BEICA who was starting their association with the Barceló family, and began an association that resulted in the establishment of Bodegas Cochón Calvo S. A. and the resurgence of Ron Siboney, this time manufactured by BEICA.

In 2015 the partnership with BEICA ended and a new partnerships were started with the Rizek family, a prominent business enterprise known for Rizek Cacao S.A.S., a century-old cacao and chocolate enterprise that today is a conglomerate spanning agribusiness, energy, tourism and financial services and United Brands, who is responsible for marketing and distribution. They now get their natural spirits from Rones y Bebidas del Caribe and operate their own rectifying plant [4] La Isabela built in 2001 by the engineering and design firm based in Madrid, Spain INEQSIS at the former Ron Siboney facilities.

Oliver & Oliver

Juanillo Oliver arrived in Cuba in 1856 as a member of the Spanish military and at the end of his military service in 1874, rather than returning to Spain decided to settle in Cuba and get involved in the rum business. Today, Oliver is a village in Camajuaní, Villa Clara Province where he settled. Oliver harvested his own sugarcane to create rum, but during the Cuban War of Independence, the Oliver family estate was burned down and rum production was abandoned. Following the Fidel Castro revolution, the family left Cuba and settled in Santo Domingo in 1963.

In 1994, after finding documents containing the formulas and processes used by Juanillo, his great-great-grandson, Pedro Ramón Oliver established Oliver & Oliver International Inc. in Santo Domingo to continue his great-great-grandfather’s work and produce rum to the same standard . The firm was reorganized under the corporate name of Oliver & Oliver in 1997. This firm is a relative newcomer to the Dominican rum scene. They are a non-distiller producer that purchase natural spirits from Panama, Guatemala and Trinidad & Tobago and blend and age them mainly using the solera method in their facilities at the Hato Nuevo Free Trade Zone in Santo Domingo. Brands in their line of products include Cubaney, Quorhum, Opthimus, Guantanamera, Cubanacan and Vizcaya.

Isidro Bordas S. A.

Isidro Bordas S.A. is a non-distiller producer established in 1935 by Juan Isidro Bordas Fernandez (1899-1989) in Santiago de los Caballeros. Today they are still headquartered in Santiago de los Caballeros and also have a distribution office in the Herrera Free Trade Zone in Santo Domingo. They produce a wide array of spirits, rums and wines and a locally well known traditional eggnog style cream liqueur. Their rum labels include Isidro Bordas, Carta Vieja and their premium rum Don Isidro,

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[1] His death certificate states he was born in Valencia, Carabobo, Venezuela.

[2] Palo Viejo is Puerto Rican rum produced by Destilería Serrallés. However, in the Dominican Republic, Bermúdez produces the well known expression called Ron Viejo Bermúdez that is sometimes referred to by locals as Palo Viejo.

[3] Measure for liquids in general equivalent to ¼ of a barrel.

[4] A rectifier buys bulk alcohol or wine and redistills it using towering fractional distillation columns to extreme purity, or simply blends, filters, and flavors it to a specific recipe.