This one-of-a-kind bar, located inside the Montecristo Hotel (20-22 rue Pascal, 75005 Paris), boasts 1,600 different types of rum. It has also recently completely revamped its cocktail menu, and the new selection is impressive.
The new team, consisting of Joseph Hoffstetter, Senior Bartender, Donovan Chouari, Bar Manager, Paul-Antoine Herbet, Bar Manager, and Grégoire Duchemin, Apprentice, is following in the footsteps of the previous team (including Adrian Nino and Christopher Bellail) and regularly launches exciting new bottlings. We meet Donovan Chouari.
Can you introduce Bar 1802 for those who don’t know it?
Bar 1802 is the bar at the Hotel Montecristo in Paris’s 5th arrondissement. Opened in 2018, it is a cocktail bar specializing in rum. All of our creations are based on this spirit, and we also offer more than 1,600 different types of rum for tasting.
Internationally renowned, Bar 1802 has been ranked among the 500 best bars in the world every year since it opened, and this year it was awarded 2 Pins in the Pinnacle Guide, the equivalent of the Michelin Guide for bars.
How did the idea of being both a bar and a bottler come about?
The idea of adding the bottling aspect was there from the beginning, with the first vintage also released in 2018 (a Clairin Sajous aged for 21 months in ex-Caroni). This concept is the result of several desires within the bar: to offer exclusive vintages at the bar, to showcase our rum expertise and know-how through these selections, and to offer exceptional products at the fairest possible prices in order to make them accessible to as many people as possible. Bar 1802 always negotiates to the maximum in order to obtain the lowest possible resale price and, for equivalent products, is often below market prices.
How does this selection process work? How do you source the rums?
These selections are made in partnership with the distilleries themselves or with other bottlers. When we work directly with the distillery, we visit the distillery as often as possible.
This allows us to communicate more easily with the master distiller, cellar master, etc. We can also visit the cellars and taste a greater number of products straight from the barrel.
When partnering with independent bottlers, we often receive samples that we use to make our selection.
In both cases, it is above all a discussion between enthusiasts, with the aim of finding products that meet our needs and desires.
At 1802, we strive to offer a range of styles, origins, flavors, and prices so that everyone can find a bottle they like and want to take home.
How many bottlings have you produced since you started?
On June 5, we released our 38th cuvée, our third partnership with Swell de Spirits, this time featuring a TDL 2000 that has been aged for 15 years in tropical conditions and 10 years in continental conditions. We will pass the 40 cuvée mark before the end of the year, with other surprises currently being selected or even bottled.
Which selections have made the biggest impression on you?
Many of our vintages are memorable, whether because of our partnerships with legendary bottlers such as Samaroli, or because of the origin of the rum we bottle, such as the legendary Caroni distillery, which we had the honor of selecting from the stocks of the Scotch Malt Whisky Society.
In terms of taste, we like all of our vintages, otherwise we wouldn’t have selected them, but some remain in our memory because of their truly divine taste.
I am thinking in particular of the 26-year-old Clarendon selected with Rum Runner, a 19-year-old TDL with Compagnie des Indes, and above all the 55.6 vintage, a 2006 Savanna HERR white, which spent 15 years resting in vats before being sold to us by Old Brothers. A classic that remains in the memory of all the team members.
What is your view on independent bottling and what do you think about the increase in the number of players?
Independent bottling as a whole is a wonderful thing. It opens up new horizons for products we already know. We discover cask-strength products with more character. In recent years, we have seen a “race” towards aging, in the sense that everyone has experimented with different woods or less common second fill casks, different climatic conditions, etc. A new bottler is a new personality that we will be able to discover through their selections.
Have you planned any blends or aging processes in addition to your selections?
For the moment, we have no blends planned; we are focusing on single casks. As for aging, we have several small barrels in the bar’s cellar that could one day become a micro-series stamped 1802, who knows…
What are your plans/bottling projects?
Several casks have already been selected, and even bottled, for release in 2025, and we are already planning projects. Without giving too much away, 2025 will be focused on products with British accents, with accessible products as well as decidedly more upmarket rums.
However, we have made relatively few selections of pure cane juice (10 out of 38), and we are keen to showcase these products more prominently in 2026 and 2027. Discussions are underway, but it is still too early to talk about them.
What has become of the Rhum Society?
The Rhum Society is an event created and organized by 1802, which was held on its premises. It was a rum fair during which each distillery or brand had its own stand in a room at the Montecristo hotel.
Access to these rooms was limited to small groups for obvious reasons of space, but above all to ensure effective and personal dialogue between participants and visitors. Each stand had a 15- to 30-minute session to keep traffic flowing and allow everyone to discover what rum had to tell us.
This is a request we receive a lot, both from spirits professionals and visitors, and it is certainly an important point in our thinking for the future.
However, the various editions of the Rhum Society were held during the Covid epidemic. With tourism at a complete standstill during this period, we had plenty of time to take over the rooms at the Hotel Montecristo, which is no longer the case today.
It is financially very complicated to close a fully occupied hotel permanently for this type of event. However, we are continuing to look for possibilities and alternatives, as we are keen to see this project reborn.