Distillery Tour: Old New Orleans Rum

[Count Silvio]

This article is courtesy of Matt Robold from RumDood.com.

During Tales of the Cocktail this year, I decided to make a trip down to see Celebration Distillation – home of Old New Orleans Rum. I wanted to get an inside look at how this small American distillery was producing a unique collection of rums that they claim captures the essence of the Crescent City in a bottle.

I spent the morning putting together some notes, and then grabbed a taxi from the Hotel Monteleone to the distillery. The two buildings are only about 3.5 miles apart, but I didn't want to end up lost and figured a cab would be the right way to go. The drive there took a tad longer than I had expected as we navigated the numerous one-way streets of the French Quarter and then traveled through several neighborhoods that were still showing signs of the destruction wrought by Hurricane Katrina. It was a rather jarring reminder that – despite the signs of improvement in the French Quarter – New Orleans has still not fully recovered.

My plan worked like a charm, and we ended up lost in a cluster of industrial buildings, driving up and down rocky, uneven roads. Eventually we found ourselves on the other side of the tracks (literally) and after some searching about, we finally found a modest warehouse on Frenchmen Street in the Gentilly neighborhood with a sign for Old New Orleans Rum, and figured we'd found the right place.

Read rest of Dood's article on the frontpage or at RumDood.

[Count Silvio]

It looks like Hurricane Gustav is headed for New Orleans. I wonder how the Celebration distillation has prepared for this?

Evacuation order as Gustav approaches

New Orleans mayor Ray Nagin has ordered the city emptied tomorrow in the face of "the storm of the century", warning anyone that stays behind that they are on their own.

"I am announcing today mandatory evacuation of New Orleans starting 8am Sunday (2300 Sunday AEST) on the West bank," Nagin said at a press conference. "We want everybody... we want 100 per cent evacuation. If you decide to stay, you are on your own."

"This is the mother of all storms," Nagin said. "This storm is so powerful and growing more powerful every day that I'm not sure we've seen anything like it."

Nagin estimated that less than half of the city's population has left despite days of dire warnings.

"This is the real deal," Nagin said. "Riding this storm out would be one of the biggest mistakes you could make in your life."

Nagin said police, fire and other emergency personnel are being pulled from the city to safer areas. A "skeleton crew" of fewer than 50 city workers will be left behind, according to officials.

Hurricane Gustav is on course to crash ashore near New Orleans. Nagin told anyone planning to stay behind to "make sure you have an axe because you will be busting your way out to get on your roof with waters surrounding you."

Gustav has left around 85 people dead in Caribbean nations.

In 2005, New Orleans was hammered by Hurricane Katrina which caused widespread flooding and left tens of thousands of people homeless.

http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/evacua ... 27591.html