When John joined Angostura in 1982 as a Factory Manager as a recently graduated Engineering student, he was responsible mainly for distilling. Since then, John has held various other managerial and senior managerial roles within the company with responsibilities for ageing, bulk sales, packaging and capital projects and today continues his exploration of the manufacture and ageing of rum in his position as Master Distiller.

Always experimenting with different ways to age Angostura’s rums, John was part of the team that pioneered new premium aged blends including the multi-award-winning Angostura International Rum Collection.  It’s testament to John’s skill that Angostura was able to double the rum distillation output while still maintaining the finesse required to produce super premium brands.

John has learned much from his predecessors such as Tommy Gatcliffe, a pioneer in Trinidad rum production and gained invaluable experience from working with previous Distillery Managers and Supervisors, Plant Operators, Angostura Lab Staff.  He also benefitted hugely from attending a number of industry workshops and seminars with other distillers.  Today, a new generation of distillers and spirit crafters look to John for their inspiration. 

The latter part of his 37 yrs career in the rum business was spent passionately sharing his knowledge with rum enthusiasts around the world as he supported Angostura’s international marketing efforts in Australia, throughout Europe, Russia, the US and the Caribbean.