Meet the husband-and-wife duo behind Georgia’s rum renaissance

What began as a retirement interest has developed into certainly one of Georgia’s most celebrated craft distilleries, drawing 1000’s of holiday makers yearly to a sprawling 70-acre property on this rural railroad city about two hours south of Atlanta.

Erik and Karin Vonk, a Dutch couple who traded company life for farming, have constructed Richland Rum right into a enterprise that critics say produces among the most interesting spirits obtainable wherever. Their journey started 25 years in the past, rooted in Erik’s childhood reminiscences of his grandfather’s classes about rum manufacturing.

“He taught me as an impressionable child and teenager the distinction between rums created from molasses which is a byproduct of sugar making and rums made straight from recent sugar cane,” Erik Vonk mentioned.

The couple develop their very own sugarcane on the property, placing them amongst lower than 5% of rum makers worldwide who use sugar cane juice as a substitute of molasses. This distinction, the Vonks say, units their product aside in a crowded market.

“We’re within the first actual development month,” Erik Vonk mentioned, surveying the fields that provide their distillery.

How the distillery produces its rum

The U.S. rum trade is experiencing what specialists name a “rum renaissance,” with craft spirits gaining recognition nationwide. Georgia, particularly, has seen important development after legislative adjustments made manufacturing extra viable.

Rum manufacturing within the state was basically nonexistent till the flip of the century as a result of sophisticated liquor legal guidelines. A breakthrough got here in 2017 when Georgia lawmakers allowed distilleries to promote their merchandise straight from their services.

“Lastly in 2017, the Georgia legislator allowed us to promote our personal product in our personal buildings,” Karin Vonk mentioned.

The Richland distillery homes greater than 1,000 American white oak barrels stacked to the ceiling, some containing rum that has been growing old for greater than a decade. The growing old course of is essential to the ultimate product’s high quality.

“We at all times say the barrel decides when the rum is prepared. It may be wherever between six and 10 years,” Karin Vonk mentioned.

Success did not come simply. The Vonks describe years of trial and error, with Karin noting “a whole lot of blisters” in perfecting their craft. 

Distiller TJ Harris oversees the manufacturing course of, which begins with combining 90 gallons of syrup with 500 gallons of water and 6 ounces of yeast. Fermentation takes seven to 10 days earlier than the combination strikes to copper pot stills, the place it is distilled at 120 proof and transferred to barrels.

The operation’s popularity has attracted notable consideration, together with from former President Jimmy Carter and former first girl Rosalynn Carter, who grew up in close by Plains.

“President Carter and Ms. Rosalynn had a lot curiosity within the course of that then and there, we determined we had been distilling a presidential barrel proper there,” Karin Vonk mentioned.

The couple acknowledges the challenges of mixing marriage with enterprise possession.

“Beginning a distillery is a gigantic problem. Combining the 2 is insanity,” Erik Vonk mentioned, laughing. “The truth that we have been ready to try this and nonetheless are having fun with it day by day — and nonetheless fortunately married — is outstanding.”