MASTER BLENDER Deny Duplessis is still humbled when he sees a bottle of the Chairman’s 2009 Vintage with its award-winning note on the label. The rum, his first project as master blender, won a 2021 International Wine and Spirits Competition (IWSC) gold medal. It remains his favorite blend he’s ever made.

With the company for 12 years, Deny came up through the quality control department to rise to the position of master blender in 2018. A native of Saint Lucia, Deny is extremely honored to be developing the country’s premier product, rum. A former high school science teacher, he made a career change when he realized he wanted more experimentation in science rather than a classroom setting. With an interest in the island’s brewery and distillery operations, he resigned from his teaching job when he saw an opening for a lab technician at Saint Lucia Distillers.

Along with stints in the lab and in the quality assurance facility, Deny began shadowing former master blender Evanius Harris, forming a close bond of shared secrets about rum production. For Deny, it is about intimately understanding how to approach a blend, given variables from customer data, sales teams, marketing trends, and raw materials. He combines those learnings with his post-graduate work in brewing and distilling at Heriot-Watt University in his rum-making style today. He finds the most motivation in positive customer feedback, knowing he was responsible for their appreciation and enjoyment of a rum. What’s in the glass keeps driving him.