Spirits · Key West, Florida
Papa's Pilar
Blended, barrel-finished rum made with the backing of the Hemingway family.
- Founded
- 2013
- Based in
- Key West, Florida
Making it since
2013
Their story
Papa's Pilar takes its name from Ernest Hemingway, known to friends as Papa, and his fishing boat, the Pilar. The Hemingway estate holds a stake in the brand and supports it actively, and the company directs profits toward ocean conservation causes.
The brand launched around 2013. In 2017 it opened a flagship distillery in Key West, Hemingway's old stomping ground, inside a 19th-century tobacco warehouse on Simonton Street. At the opening, his grandson John Hemingway spoke in support of the rum.
How it's made
The rums are blends of spirits from several places, including Florida, Barbados, the Dominican Republic and Panama. They rest in bourbon and port barrels and are finished in Oloroso sherry casks. The Key West distillery added a white rum made from Florida molasses to the blending program.
I believe in this rum.
Why we carry them
We reach for the dark expression when someone wants a sipping rum with sherry richness. It's also a fine excuse to read some Hemingway.
More makers like this
All makers-
10th Mountain Whiskey & Spirit Co.
Vail, Colorado
Colorado whiskey honoring the WWII ski soldiers who trained near Vail.
-
10th Street Distillery
San Jose, California
American single malt whisky, engineered in San Jose by two Silicon Valley friends.
-
1792 Distillery
Bardstown, Kentucky
Bardstown bourbon named for the year Kentucky became a state.
Find more makers like this in Provisions Club, our curated subscription.
Explore Provisions Club