French colonizers of Saint-Domingue in the 17th Century used pure fresh sugarcane juice to produce a raw spirit, known as tafia, which in addition to being traded and consumed by locals, was used in voodoo ceremonies. In 1804, following the Haitian Revolution, the world's first and only successful slave revolt led by Toussaint Louverture, Haiti became an independent republic which it is to this day. While the revolution resulted in the destruction of many large colonial sugar estates, small scale local production and distillation of a spirit they call clairin survived and flourished over time.

Clairin is much more than a traditional, unrefined spirit or local moonshine produced by more than five hundred small distilleries or gildives across Haiti, it holds deep cultural and spiritual significance. Because of its highly traditional production process and distillation in rustic pot stills, it is often identified as a distinct category of white rum. During a visit to Haiti in 2012, Luca Gargano, owner of liquor importer and distributor Habitation Velier, became acquainted with several producers of clairin and had the idea to develop an international market for the spirit. He did so by creating The Spirit of Haiti, a company based in Port-Au-Prince to bottle clairin and distribute it worldwide and most recently the Spiced Rum Boukman for the the US market. They have since partnered with several clairin known producers like Michel Sajous of Distillery Chelo, Fritz Vaval of Distillery Arawaks and Faubert Casimir of Distillery Faubert Casimir, Bethel Romelus and Stephan Kalil Saoud and released single-vintage expressions as well as a handful of blends.

Sajous, plants numerous species of cane on his land near the city of Saint Michel de l’Attalaye, mainly the strain called Cristalline. Sugarcane is cut by hand and pressed to extract its juice which is then reduced slightly over burning bagasse. The concentrated liquid is then left to spontaneously ferment in the open air for about ten days. The resulting liquid is then distilled in pot stills and bottled unfiltered without and additives or aging at around 110˚ proof. This is different from the style used by Vaval at Arrawaks distillery in Cavaillon near Haiti’s south coast. Vaval grows Madam Meuze cane on about fifty acres, ferments only raw cane juice and distills it using a short column still with a homemade condenser. Every small-scale rural micro-distillery or guildive that produce clairin in Haiti possesses a unique characteristic imparted by its specific geographic origin. Their equipment varies from one to the next, but none will be furnished with modern machinery. While rum production in other Caribbean nations has generally become more efficient and industrialized, clairin production methods have stayed the same for decades, maybe centuries. It’s precisely this lack of innovation that has made clairin such a distinctive and interesting spirit.

In 2015, Gargano imported casks from Hampden Estates in Jamaica and the defunct Caroni distillery in Trinidad to mature clairin in casks from these distilleries. Bottling of aged Clairin is not available at present, but its inception marks the creation of a new spirit which future potential could transform a local product into a global commodity. However, New ventures have not yet changed the fundamentals of farming, fermentation and distillation practiced in local guildives, and for now clairin remains what it always used to be. Because of its highly traditional production process, clairin is often identified as a distinct category of white rum. As stated by Gargano in an interview with Tristan Stephenson the The Curious Bartender, when it comes to the production of clairin, the farmer is the producer and the owner and the purpose of Habitation Velier in bringing it to world markets is to elevate the product and the island and not to alter in any way the tradition behind it.

Of the three distilleries that today oprate in Haiti, Rum Barbancourt has historically been the largest and best known international rum producer, exporting to over twent countries roughly 20% to 50% of its total annual production of around three hundred thousand cases. It is the dominant commercial exporter, accounting for the vast majority of globally distributed commercial Haitian rum.

Berling S. A.

In 1765 Louis Barbancourt left France for Saint-Domingue, today Haiti, where he established a sugarcane plantation. Years later, his descendants, brothers Charles Antoine Labbée Barbancourt (1845-1911) and Jérome Maximilien Dupré Barbancourt (1836-1907) were involved in the clairin distillation business started by their ancestor Louis Barbancourt a century or so earlier. In 1862, the brothers organized the business as Société du Rhum Barbancourt and continued operations until 1906 when Labbée left the company and established his own distilling operation that later became Berling S. A.

It is said that when Labbée Barbancourt left the partnership with his brother Dupré, he established the firm Jane Barbancourt Co., named after his granddaughter Jane Barbancourt (1921- ) who later ran the company. This is not possible as Labbée died in 1911 and his granddaughter Jane was not born until 1921. Circa 1950, Jane married Dresden, Germany born Rudolf Siegfried Linge (1915- ), who for political reasons left Germany for France in 1935 where he eventually settled in Grasse, on the French Riviera in the hills north of Cannes known for its long established perfume industry. From Grasse, he came to Haiti in 1940. Together, Jane and Rudolf launched the Jane Barbancourt brand and produced rums and liqueurs. For many years, until it was destroyed in the 2010 magnitude 7.0 earthquake that hit Haiti, their distillery operations were carried out at the antique filled granite chateau in the mountains of Boutilliers above Port au Prince called Château Jane Barbancourt built by the couple.

They had one son named Herbert Barbancourt-Linge who continued his parents vision and the family’s rum legacy and launched their flagship Rhum Vieux Labbée in 1999. Legal battles regarding the use of the Barbancourt name resulted in Jane Barbancourt Co. having to change its name in 1950 to The Distillers Family Co. In 1987 Herbert changed the name of the company to Barlin Co., a contraction of Barbancourt and Linge, name that was again changed in 1999 to Berling S. A.‍ ‍ Herbert’s son Herbert Barbancourt-Linge Jr. is also in the business involved with the partnership the company has with Luca Gargano named Distillerie de Port-Au-Prince.

Distillerie de Port-au-Prince

Distillerie de Port-au-Prince is a micro distillery established in 2018 at what used to be Habitation Sarthe Providence, on land historically used to grow sugarcane and artisanal rum-making. It is a partnership between Berling S. A. of the Barbancourt-Linge family and La Maison & Velier, a joint venture between Italian liquor importer and distributor Luca Gargano of Velier and French spirits retailer and distributor Thierry Bénitah of La Maison du Whisky. The distillery uses a copper pot still designed and built by Müller Pot Stills based in Germany and the distillation unit designed and engineered by master distiller Vittorio Gianni Capovilla. It is an artisanal producer of premium rhum agricole under the Providence brand.

The distillery processes organic, pesticide-free Cristalline sugarcane to create a product that is substantially different from the local clairin made in the villages of Haiti for local consumption. Master distillers Herbert Barbancourt-Linge Jr. (1982- ) and Gianni Capovilla oversee production of the distillery’s first releases which though having some clairin like qualities, is its own. Its sugarcane juice and cane syrup is sourced from Michel Sajous, maker of Clairin Sajous at Distillery Chelo, fermented between ten to twelve days and double distilled. Aging takes place on-site in the hot and humid tropical climate of Haiti.

Société du Rhum Barbancourt

The Rhum Barbancourt brand has defined Haiti’s industrial rum making for over a century and today is the oldest continuously operating business in Haiti. Société du Rhum Barbancourt was established in 1862 by brothers Jérome Maximilien Dupré Barbancourt (1836-1907) and Charles Antoine Labbée Barbancourt (1845-1911), born in Las Caues, Haiti to parents from the Charente department in southwest France. In 1906 Labbé left the company to establish a separate company later named Jane Barbancourt Co., now known as Berling S.A. Dupré Barbancourt applied the traditional Charente double-distillation method typically reserved for Cognac to Haitian sugarcane juice. The distilled spirit, though made from sugarcane juice is not considered rhum agricole, is then aged in imported French Limousin oak barrels in cellars in the Plaine du Cul-de-Sac region near Port-au-Prince.

Dupré, the a widower three times, married Marie Nathalie Gardère (1846- ) on November 8, 1891. When Dupré died in 1907 without any descendants from his marriage to Marie Nathalie, the company was inherited by her, later passing to her nephew Paul Gardère ( -1946). Upon his death, Paul’s son Jean Gardère ( -1990) took over the business in 1946 and under his leadership in 1949 the production infrastructure was modernized and moved near the very heart of the estate's sugarcane plantations where the following year distillation began at Domaine de l’Etoile, just four kilometers from Port-au-Prince. The development of the company was furthered by Jean until his death in 1990 when his son Paul Jean-Marie Thierry Gardère (1952-2017) took over the business as general director and fourth generation family member to run the business. On January 12, 2010 a 7.0 magnitude earthquake hit Haiti causing extensive damage, Rhum Barbancourt lost about 30% of its rum stock and suffered an estimated $4 million loss when bottles and vats filled with rum, some containing rum as old as fifteen years, toppled and spilled to the floor. However, they resumed operations just four months later.

After twenty seven years running the business, Thierry Gardère died unexpectedly in March 2017. In October 2017, his widow Muriel Lamour-Gardère passed on the 37.25% ownership of the shares issued and outstanding of Societé de Rhum Barbancourtshe she inherited to their daughter Nathalie Delphine Gardère (1983- ). This gave Delphine de facto control of the company since she could break the two-thirds majority needed for company decisions to pass. But three other shareholders, Thierry Gardère’s siblings Françoise Gardère and Jean-Marc Gardère and cousin Michel Gardère who collectively owned a 62.75% stake, did not see it that way. After a long legal family battle, in July 2020 the family members agreed to sell their shares to Delphine Gardère who then became 100% majority owner and CEO of the company and the fifth generation family member and only the second woman to head the business.

Delphine was raised in Haiti and attended college in France where she received a degree in business at the INSEEC Grande Ecole Paris. She later attended Emory University in Atlanta and after graduating worked in finance and investment as a stock analyst in London. She then pursued a master’s degree in marketing from the Cranfield School of Management in the UK, writing her thesis on the “premiumization” of rum, before working as a marketer in the fragrance industry. In 2016, when she realized that her passion was in consumer products and her heart in her family business so she returned to Haiti to work in developing the expansion of distribution and export growth for Rhum Barbancourt.

Today the sugarcane juice used in the distillery is supplied by a large number of farmers, with only about 10% harvested at the company’s land. Aging is done mostly in French oak casks and some ex-bourbon casks at the company’s eleven on-site warehouses. The two videos below, one with Thierry Gardère filmed after the earthquake and the other with Delphine Gardère showcasing the Barbancourt operation today, are good material to appreciate this distillery.