Uploaded July 2026 | Updated September 2026, 1 week ago
Daniele Biondi is one of the (if not *the*) leading global experts on the rum category. Working with Luca Gargano at Velier, he is one of the key figures behind the international rediscovery of Haitian clairin, the new wave of Colombian sugarcane spirits, and a driving force behind the Hampden Estate story. He's been working with rum since the 90's, has visited every major distillery in the Caribbean but over the last 15 years particularly, has spent much of his time travelling to the world's least-documented rum-producing regions — Haiti, Colombia, the Philippines, and more — searching out distilleries that, in his words, "aren't on Google."
These distilleries are often so numerous and geographically dispersed that it bodes the question - have we actually seen or tasted much of the world's rums?
Daniele began his career bartending in Milan in the late 1990s, and found there was almost no reliable information on the category available anywhere so he began researching obsessively. That personal research project became, in February 2007, one of the first rum blogs in Europe: not just a blog, but a functioning reference work, a "kind of Wikipedia" for rum at a time when the internet had almost nothing on the subject. It grew past 3,000 readers before he even realised it was a significant following, and led directly to him becoming president of Italy's Rum Club.
From there, his path diverges from almost every other rum communicator working today. Rather than build a personal media brand, he was recruited into an EU-funded Caribbean producers' association and spent years as a full-time, on-the-ground rum educator — travelling constantly (by his own account, "14 islands in 14 days," well over 100 days a year in some markets), running tastings, PR and trade negotiations, and building direct relationships with producers across Italy, France, Spain and the UK.
Then came the discovery work most people do associate with him, even if they don't always connect the name to it: it was Daniele who, in 2012, first went looking for Haiti's undocumented clairin distilleries — "not on Google" — and helped bring what's now a globally recognised spirit category into being. He did the same, more quietly, in Colombia, surfacing viche and the Afro-Colombian women producers behind it, and again in the Philippines, discovering a young distiller working in methods inspired by Hampden. And alongside Luca Gargano, he's been one of the central figures shaping Hampden Estate's modern reputation and the whole aged-clairin project — categories and products that are now widely celebrated, even if the person who did much of the groundwork isn't always credited alongside them.
Side note: he also wrote the introduction for the Italian version of my rum book.
The conversation ranges from muddy backroads in rural Haiti to the fermentation room at Hampden, and from the mechanics of ester chemistry to why flavour is ultimately an emotional, personal experience.
00:00:00 Discovering Haiti's hidden clairin distilleries
00:08:05 Life in rural Haiti & the parable of the fisherman
00:13:46 The "salami theory" of eroding tradition
00:16:27 Choosing which producers to work with
00:25:03 Tracing clairin's 18th-century Jamaican roots
00:33:41 Ageing clairin for the first time
00:38:07 Why esters (not ethanol) age in the cask
00:44:24 How Daniele and Tristan first met
00:46:03 Bartending in 1990s Milan
00:56:28 Founding Italy's first rum blog
01:03:19 Working for the Caribbean producers' association
01:06:00 Meeting Luca Gargano
01:10:45 Luca's gift for "manifesting" ideas
01:12:38 Colombia's own clairin-style spirit: viche
01:16:21 The legal grey area for small producers
01:20:39 The women producers behind viche
01:23:14 Trunk stills and the Filipino distilling lineage
01:34:46 Introducing Hampden Estate
01:38:49 Is Hampden "the most rum-tasting rum"?
01:40:18 Inside Hampden's fermentation room
01:42:58 Tasting the Hampden 15
01:48:48 Rediscovering the magic beyond the data
01:52:24 What a gas chromatograph can't tell you
01:54:11 Flavour as a personal experience
02:01:29 A new rum project in the Philippines
02:06:12 Tropical vs continental ageing
02:09:43 What Daniele and Luca disagree on
02:12:12 Closing thoughts
🍋🟩 Fever-Tree - For the very best mixers that taste pretty damn good even by themselves
☕ Algebra Drinks - The world's best coffee liqueur (partly because it's low in sugar - get 15% off at algebradrinks.com with the code CURIOUS15
🌾 Belvedere Vodka - Organic vodka, with substance, made from Polish rye and absolutely no additives.
🍷 Denver & Liely - The best glassware on the planet - get 15% off at denverandliely.com with the code CURIOUS15
Daniele Biondi is one of the (if not *the*) leading global experts on the rum category. Working with Luca Gargano at Velier, he is one of the key figures behind the international rediscovery of Haitian clairin, the new wave of Colombian sugarcane spirits, and a driving force behind the Hampden Estate story. He's been working with rum since the 90's, has visited every major distillery in the Caribbean but over the last 15 years particularly, has spent much of his time travelling to the world's least-documented rum-producing regions — Haiti, Colombia, the Philippines, and more — searching out distilleries that, in his words, "aren't on Google."
These distilleries are often so numerous and geographically dispersed that it bodes the question - have we actually seen or tasted much of the world's rums?
Daniele began his career bartending in Milan in the late 1990s, and found there was almost no reliable information on the category available anywhere so he began researching obsessively. That personal research project became, in February 2007, one of the first rum blogs in Europe: not just a blog, but a functioning reference work, a "kind of Wikipedia" for rum at a time when the internet had almost nothing on the subject. It grew past 3,000 readers before he even realised it was a significant following, and led directly to him becoming president of Italy's Rum Club.
From there, his path diverges from almost every other rum communicator working today. Rather than build a personal media brand, he was recruited into an EU-funded Caribbean producers' association and spent years as a full-time, on-the-ground rum educator — travelling constantly (by his own account, "14 islands in 14 days," well over 100 days a year in some markets), running tastings, PR and trade negotiations, and building direct relationships with producers across Italy, France, Spain and the UK.
Then came the discovery work most people do associate with him, even if they don't always connect the name to it: it was Daniele who, in 2012, first went looking for Haiti's undocumented clairin distilleries — "not on Google" — and helped bring what's now a globally recognised spirit category into being. He did the same, more quietly, in Colombia, surfacing viche and the Afro-Colombian women producers behind it, and again in the Philippines, discovering a young distiller working in methods inspired by Hampden. And alongside Luca Gargano, he's been one of the central figures shaping Hampden Estate's modern reputation and the whole aged-clairin project — categories and products that are now widely celebrated, even if the person who did much of the groundwork isn't always credited alongside them.
Side note: he also wrote the introduction for the Italian version of my rum book.
The conversation ranges from muddy backroads in rural Haiti to the fermentation room at Hampden, and from the mechanics of ester chemistry to why flavour is ultimately an emotional, personal experience.
00:00:00 Discovering Haiti's hidden clairin distilleries
00:08:05 Life in rural Haiti & the parable of the fisherman
00:13:46 The "salami theory" of eroding tradition
00:16:27 Choosing which producers to work with
00:25:03 Tracing clairin's 18th-century Jamaican roots
00:33:41 Ageing clairin for the first time
00:38:07 Why esters (not ethanol) age in the cask
00:44:24 How Daniele and Tristan first met
00:46:03 Bartending in 1990s Milan
00:56:28 Founding Italy's first rum blog
01:03:19 Working for the Caribbean producers' association
01:06:00 Meeting Luca Gargano
01:10:45 Luca's gift for "manifesting" ideas
01:12:38 Colombia's own clairin-style spirit: viche
01:16:21 The legal grey area for small producers
01:20:39 The women producers behind viche
01:23:14 Trunk stills and the Filipino distilling lineage
01:34:46 Introducing Hampden Estate
01:38:49 Is Hampden "the most rum-tasting rum"?
01:40:18 Inside Hampden's fermentation room
01:42:58 Tasting the Hampden 15
01:48:48 Rediscovering the magic beyond the data
01:52:24 What a gas chromatograph can't tell you
01:54:11 Flavour as a personal experience
02:01:29 A new rum project in the Philippines
02:06:12 Tropical vs continental ageing
02:09:43 What Daniele and Luca disagree on
02:12:12 Closing thoughts
🍋🟩 Fever-Tree - For the very best mixers that taste pretty damn good even by themselves
☕ Algebra Drinks - The world's best coffee liqueur (partly because it's low in sugar - get 15% off at algebradrinks.com with the code CURIOUS15
🌾 Belvedere Vodka - Organic vodka, with substance, made from Polish rye and absolutely no additives.
🍷 Denver & Liely - The best glassware on the planet - get 15% off at denverandliely.com with the code CURIOUS15
