Nate Darling - Pekut and Carwick Independent Bottlers

Nate Darling

A worktable with automatic bottling machine and bottles of whiskey.

2022 P&C Independent Bottlers Year in Review

If you've been a regular reader over the past couple of years, you'll know that we take the opportunity of the post-holiday January calm to regroup. It follows then, that this first edition of the newsletter helps us reflect on who we are as a business, how the year went,

Flow chart tracing rum production from raw materials to production, distribution, and consumption.

Handbook of Rum Featured

The world guide to rum

Where does rum come from? In his book, Rum, a Social and Sociable History, Ian Williams calls rum "the global spirit with its warm beating heart in the Caribbean." Dreamy metaphor aside, most rum styles are legacies of former Caribbean colonies, but that "warm beating heart" also pumps rum and

Two men rolling a whiskey barrel up a ramp.

Ethics Featured

Why Independent Bottling?

We occupy a unique position in the distilled spirits industry. We co-brand. We import, blend, bottle, rectify, and distribute. We don't distill, but we work with farmers, fruit growers, and distillers. We even do private label bottling. We're testing the boundaries of making, marketing, and selling spirits with an eye

Image of a sugar cane field with blue sky in the background.

Handbook of Rum

The most interesting US rum

We take delicious and ethically produced rum seriously. For us, that means finding rum producers who make and market interesting products that we can get behind, both as consumers and as importers/bottlers/distributors. Domestic rum is particularly interesting to us. Sorting through ALL the rum made in the US

Barrels of aging spirits stacked against a wall.

The top ten best selling rum brands and what we can learn from them

What's the most sold rum in the world? The answer might surprise you. According to one online market research database, the Asia-Pacific rum market accounted for a dominating 41.6% of rum’s market share in 2021, mostly driven by India and the Philippines. When you consider further that Tanduay,

Two bottles of craft gin on a table.

Introducing Dissident Spirits Co.

Did you know—we're distributors, too! We're super psyched about our new distribution partnership with Dissident Spirits Co. in Richmond, CA. They've been producing gin, vodka, rum, and amaros in Marina Bay for just over a year, and they're already getting accolades (Forbes: "top US gin", NYWSC: double gold). View

A dim warehouse full of aging oak whiskey barrels.

Why independent bottling?

Big beverage brands are stuck. They create products that are consistent for massive global distribution. If they sell gin, they make that gin over and over and over again. Every bottle is the same, every time which is an epic feat of quality control and supply chain management but also

A glass of Prunus Mume California Umeshu with magnolia blossoms and a sunset in the background.

Prunus Mume California Umeshu

Fruit: Prunus mume (ume plums) Process: maceration on fruit Maturation time: 1-2 years Nose: marzipan, stone fruit, tart pineapple hard candy Palate: sweet, pucker-tart, chocolate taffy, lemon peel, yellow lifesaver RELEASE NOTES: The prunus mume tree is commonly called a Japanese or "ume" plum and is actually more closely related

A bottle of Pekut & Carwick Heritage Single Malt Whiskey Stands in front of a whiskey barrel.

Heritage California Single Malt Whiskey

Grain: 100% unpeated UK malt mash Distillery: Sutherland Distilling Company in Livermore, CA Batch: Two barrels distilled in October 2016 Barrel: American Standard Bourbon (ASB) char #4 Nose: vanilla, menthol, cedar, and wet oak Palate: dry with a building heat, brief apple sweetness, brioche, toasted bread, hints of pear esters

A bottle of Pekut & Carwick Bulk Rum from Guyana in front of an oak barrel.

Bulk Rum

Raw material: molasses Origin: Guyana Distillation: blend of pot and column still Maturation: no age statement, blend of aged and unaged Proofing: lowered to bottling proof in used single malt and rum barrels Nose: sugar, light caramel, cake donut, slight nutty funk Palate: dry, mouthwarming, "chewy" maltiness, vanilla, oak RELEASE

Glossy fresh lemons and oranges are piled on a blue plastic crate.

Citrus x Aurantium California Vin d'Orange

Impression: more orange than an orange Process: maceration on fruit and spices Base spirit: wine and brandy Nose: honey, orange blossom, wine, white brandy, vanilla Palate: orange peel, orange juice, orange marmalade, grapefruit peel bitterness, hint of sherry RELEASE NOTES: It's difficult to maintain perspective when you're tasting your own

A bottle of Pekut and Carwick Maiden Voyage California Single Malt Whiskey

Maiden Voyage California Single Malt

Grain: Metcalfe barley grown in Esparto Mash: 100% unpeated barley malted at Admiral Maltings in Alameda Distillery: Sutherland Distilling Company in Livermore, CA Batch: 1 barrel Barrel: used bourbon Terroir: 100% East Bay RELEASE NOTES: Maiden Voyage California Single Malt is a uniquely local single malt. The bottle you’re

Four people walk along an aisle in a Scottish warehouse full of barrels.

Genesis

A few years ago, I toured two of my favorite whisky producers in Campbeltown (Scotland) and Osaka (Japan). I stood in a dunnage warehouse soaking up the smell of damp earth, black mold, and a sweet, piercing high note of oak and ethanol from hundreds of single malt, single grain,

A hand holds a copita glass of whiskey up against a plant and a brick wall.

Backstage Featured

Unmarketing our marketing

When you buy anything these days, you’re not just purchasing a product. In these modern times, marketing and branding is everything. Jack Daniels is the world’s top-selling whiskey brand for a reason. In 2019 the company spent $27 million on broadcast advertising. And it’s no accident you

A closeup of sugar cane.

We want US rum

If you’ve been reading along with us here, you know we love rum. We think it’s underappreciated and underrepresented and it's ready for the spotlight. But the spotlight, as always, looks a little different for us than it does for the broader world of rum marketing. We want

Detailed closeup of dried barley grains.

Backstage Featured

About grain

A while back we mentioned that we’re working with Spirit Works Distillery in Sebastopol, California, to release some of their excellent wheat and rye whiskey. Those projects got us thinking about grain, and how this is our first foray into whiskeys not made from malt (remember malt? we're talking

A hiking trail tapers off into the distant hills.

2021 equity benchmarking

The end of the first quarter has passed (wow that flew by), so here are some updates on progress since the new year. If you haven't already perused our website, I posted some of my thoughts on being a white small business owner in an economy built on systemic racism.

How to taste at cask strength

How to taste at cask strength

It can be challenging to get into drinking cask strength spirits. You've got the marketing hype cheering you on (elegant bottles, beautiful labels, engaging content), but that almost makes it worse if you're struggling to get around the high alcohol content. Here's how F. Paul Pacult, a "renowned spirits authority"

Rum reading

What do you know about rum? A lot of people associate rum with sugary batch cocktails at a college party, latter day cheeseburger-in-paradise pirates (yarrrr), and headaches that make you want to never drink again. There's more to RUM THAN COLLEGE PARTY HANGOVERS One of my favorite books of late

An annotated image of the Pekut and Carwick label system theory with information category names.

How we made the label

Light is easy to think about. It's one orderly progression from short wavelength to long wavelength. Kind of like getting on a crowded Delta flight - everybody's got a number and has a place in the boarding queue. You might be tempted to think that aroma and flavor are similarly

Three bottles of Pekut & Carwick spirits are displayed against a cream background.

Do we really need another flavor wheel?

Flavors and aromas aren't that easy to categorize. Light is easy to think about. It's one orderly progression from short wavelength to long wavelength. Kind of like getting on a crowded Delta flight—everybody's got a number and has a place in the boarding queue. You might be tempted to

Cutting the Sugar Cane, a print of an original 1823 drawing by William Clark of enslaved workers cutting cane in Antigua.

Ethics Featured

Rum is f*cked

I'd like to encourage you to check out Céline Bossart's article Decolonizing the Whitewashed World of Carribean Rum on Liquor.com. It's required reading if you consume sugar cane products (rum, refined sugar, molasses) or similar things like coffee and chocolate here in the US market. Here's how Bossart sums

Johnny Depp as character Jack Sparrow on a beach with his pirate accessories.

Bamboozled by booze (advertising)

In our search for the answer to life, the universe, and everything booze-related, we keep getting carried off by deluges of starry-eyed anecdotes, pontifications on polished copper contraptions of yesteryear, and plain old misinformation. Modern-day distilled spirits marketing is whack if what you're after is real information. Take, for example,

An old ramshackle boat is grounded in low waters and lit by sunset light.

Our story

California is a land of sun-drenched valleys California is a land of sun-drenched valleys, rain-soaked mountains, salty sea air, and redwood forests. The air is filled with the scent of sagebrush, burning wood, and fresh citrus. The light here is softer, more golden than red, but no less intense. We

SB 620, a game-changing California bill

We keep a close eye on liquor laws in California and nationwide. As small producers in a HIGHLY regulated industry, the rules can make or break us. And there are a lot of rules. We want to talk about a bill that’s up for vote in California that could