Sat | Jan 24, 2026

2062 on the rocks

Published:Friday | September 21, 2012 | 12:00 AM
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Managing director of J Wray & Nephew, Paul Henriques, speaks with Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller (right) and Greta Bogues.
Leader of the Opposition Andrew Holness pours a bottle of Jamaica 50 Reserve into a barrel to be opened in 2062 in his honour. Looking on are Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller (left) and Greta Bogues.
Steven Golding and his sister Ann-Merita pour a bottle of Jamaica 50 Reserve into the barrel that will be opened in 2062 in honour of their father and former Prime Minister Bruce Golding. - photos by Winston Sill/Freelance Photographer
Former Prime Minister P.J. Patterson, Professor Dr Denise Eldemire-Shearer and Glynn Manley are all smiles.
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Nashauna Drummond, Lifestyle Coordinator

In the year 2062, our children and grandchildren will be able to get a taste of our legacy. Opposition Leader Andrew Holness insists he, too, will be around 50 years from now and, noting that persons in her family have lived to be 105 years old, Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller may just be there with him.

The pair have good reason to hang around, as J. Wray & Nephew's Appleton Estate Prime Ministers' Reserve was officially barrelled last Wednesday night and won't be opened until 2062.

Former prime ministers, and in some cases their representatives, were on hand at the company's headquarters on Spanish Town Road to be part of history in the making. They each added a bottle of Appleton Estate 50 Year Old Rum - Jamaica Independence Reserve, into a barrel containing rum from the 2012 crop year. They then sealed and signed it, making it ready for delivery. These barrels will be transported to Appleton Estate in St Elizabeth and put on display as part of the Appleton Estate Rum tour. Each barrel will bear a plaque identifying which former prime minister filled it, and an explanation of the significance of the Appleton Estate Jamaica Rum Prime Ministers' Reserve to be opened in 50 years time.

Managing director of J Wray & Nephew, Paul Henriques, noted that the Prime Ministers' Reserve was not just about barrelling rum, but about honouring Jamaica, its people and leaders of her first 50 years of Independence.

When the barrels are opened in 2062, they will contain rum 100 years old. In her comments Prime Minister Portia Simpson Miller said Appleton is as Jamaican as the Cockpit Country that forms the backdrop of the cane fields in which the sugar is grown, and thanked the company "for keeping our spirits high".