Cane Land Distilling Co., located at 760 St. Phillip St., will open its doors to the public for a grand opening event on May 20 and expects to begin distributing its rum to local grocers and supermarkets—stretching from New Orleans to Baton Rouge to Lafayette—by early summer.
Located near the 13th Gate and Interstate 10 overpass, Cane Land produces fresh pressed cane juice rum distilled from sugar cane grown and milled at the Alma Plantation & Sugar Mill in Pointe Coupee Parish. The plantation and sugar mill are owned by the family of Cane Land creator and co-owner Walter Tharp.
The distillery’s initial offerings will include Parade Argenté Rum, Parade Spiced Rum, ShinDig Vodka and Original Mississippi Floated Whisky.
“We are just thrilled things are moving very quickly,” says Cane Land spokeswoman Angela Ray. “Now every day there’s something new that’s being built at the distillery.”
Cane Land has been in the works since 2013, with the distillery’s original site planned on a one-acre parcel on River Road and Oklahoma Street. Tharp, however, sold the site to the Baton Rouge Area Foundation, which needed it for the Water Campus. Tharp would eventually relocate the distillery to St. Phillip Street.
Visitors to the new distillery will be able to purchase Cane Land products on-site, Ray says. They can also began booking the facility for corporate and social events, rehearsal dinners and other functions, she says. Bookings for private tours also will begin within the next week, Ray adds.
“We have a beautiful tasting room that is filled with really great features from Alma Plantation,” she says. “You’ll see the still where they make the spirits, an outdoor courtyard and a barrel aging room.”
—Alexandria Burris
