New Partnership with Three Roll Estate
First published January 24, 2021 and updated September 15, 2021
In early February of 2021, the Montanya distilling crew accepted a special delivery to the rack house: barrels of Three Roll Estate rum from Baton Rouge, Louisiana. It was distilled in 2020 by our Head Distiller Megan Campbell before she came to Montanya. Her rum was used for several reasons: to celebrate Megan’s distilling career before she came to us and to introduce customers to a slightly more estered rum profile, something highly prized by many rum enthusiasts but less known here in Colorado. We think you are in for a treat. (For this very limited release, look for barrel numbers starting with “TR” written on the bottle.)
Head distiller Megan Campbell, who distilled the Three Roll Rum, helps install the new still at Montanya in January of 2021.
Our founder and owner Karen Hoskin was thrilled to have found a partner like Three Roll Estate and Megan Campbell. In any growing company, balancing increases in capacity and inventory with growth in sales is a careful balance. This is especially true with a product like aged rum—there are tremendous upfront costs, and if production and inventory outpace demand for the product, the results can be financially disastrous. Unique collaborations like these help us to increase our inventory and handle the stresses of growth.
With support from venture capital, Montanya is now in the process of expanding distilling infrastructure to increase capacity and build inventory. That process takes time, however—even longer during a pandemic—and in late 2020 Karen knew the expansion wasn’t going to come online fast enough. She needed to bolster the company’s inventory of rum without compromising quality or the company’s commitments to transparency, environmental sustainability, social responsibility and American-grown ingredients. We know this was a risky approach - not every customer will love the variations in flavor. But we do! Or we wouldn’t release it. And we hope our customer’s will be be bold alongside us as we stretch a bit.
“I knew there might come a time when I needed to get creative with meeting demand, and if it came, that demand would have to be met without compromising my company values. I also needed to do it without putting myself out of business. Three Roll has been the perfect partner to achieve this,” says Hoskin.
Megan Campbell, Assistant Head Distiller
Like Montanya Rum, Three Roll Estate rums are copper pot-distilled, made from non-GMO, Louisiana-grown sugar cane and aged in American white oak barrels for a year or longer. In addition, this rum has no additives, flavorings or colorings, and the flavor profile complements Montanya rums. Three Roll Estate also certified the rum’s origins, which is important to meet B-Corp requirements on sourcing transparency.
That the rum was distilled by new Montanya crew member Megan Campbell made it even better. Megan joined the team in January of 2021, and brings expertise in larger-scale distillation and production. Hoskin immediately saw the Three Roll partnership as a way to meet demand and give Campbell the chance to finish what she started in Baton Rouge.
“One of the challenges I have discovered for female distillers is that they often put their heart and soul into distilling for a company but may need to leave behind this sweat equity because they are not an owner or investor,” Karen said. “This unique relationship allows me to bring Megan’s multi-year investment in making delicious rum for Three Roll Estate along with her to Montanya. She is a true talent and we feel that this is a win-win for everyone involved.”
Karen tastes rum with distillers Gilles Hügi and Meg Campbell.
Montanya bottled a 50/50 blend of the Three Roll Estate rum with Montanya Oro and Platino, and used it in one barrel of Valentia. It was not used in Exclusiva. To introduce Colorado whiskey finishing notes, it first aged in Laws Whiskey barrels. The tiny amount of honey currently added to Oro and Platino at bottling (less than 0.02%) was cut in half to balance Three Roll’s molasses profile. Each barrel number on the label was differentiated with TR as part of this unique partnership. The new blends and bottles started hitting stores in March 2021 and all bottles were sold from the Montanya warehouse by late in the summer of 2021.
In September of 2021, Montanya also accepted a shipment of Florida Distilling Company, which you can read more about here.
More from the Blog:
Made with love & not much else
WHole Foods Markets Pick up Montanya