Jakub Bagiński on cask hunting, seven deadly sins and the price of old rum

Distilia bottles some of the oldest rum still in existence and charges accordingly. So we asked the questions that follow from that: who really picks the cask when someone else's name is on the label, how it feels to watch a bottle you chose to be drunk get flipped unopened, and whether a house built on four-figure bottles has anything to offer everyone else. Bagiński answered all of them. His words, edited only for length and punctuation.

Origin and identity

Distilia started in rare whisky: Karuizawa, Glenfarclas, Clynelish. What pulled you and Piotr over into rum, and was there one cask or one moment where you thought this is where we plant our flag?

I vividly remember the day a friend poured me a glass of Caroni 17 Year Old. It completely blew my mind, although it definitely wasn't love at first sip. What it did was make me realise there was an entire universe I hadn't even known existed, the world of aged rum.

I decided to dive deeper and explore some of the most respected, highest-rated rums to see whether they could truly compete with the whiskies I loved. You already know how that story ends. We fell head over heels for the category and began hunting for the finest casks and bottles we could find.

The name says passion for spirits, but you don't distil a drop yourselves. For someone new to the category: what does an independent bottler actually do, and where in your work does the real craft sit?

In a nutshell, our job is to hunt for treasures. We do exactly what most aficionados do, we keep searching for spirits we love, just on a slightly larger scale. They hunt for bottles, we hunt for casks.

Because we're not distillers, we're not tied to any particular style, category, distillery or country of origin. We have the freedom to explore the entire world of spirits in search of exceptional casks that excite us and, above all, our clients. Over the years we've learned that as our journey continues, our tastes, expectations and desires evolve. That's why our model gives us the flexibility to evolve with them, rather than being confined to a single house style.

We also love travelling to new places and discovering the history, traditions and people behind the distilleries. As independent bottlers, we can flirt with everyone, no commitments. How cool is that?

Philosophy

Most bottlers put a cask number on a label and call it a day. You build whole worlds: seven deadly sins, pirates, national flowers, a horse-breeding Polish count. Where does that instinct come from, and do you ever worry the story pulls more attention than the liquid?

Not at all. In fact, I hope the story behind the bottle is just as compelling as the liquid itself. I see every bottle as a canvas, a medium through which we can tell fascinating stories while presenting an exceptional spirit.

The story should never replace the quality of what's inside, it should enhance it. Together they create a much richer experience and allow people to connect with the product on many different levels.

You hand part of the selection and the narrative to outside experts: Robert Bauer for The Sins and The Virtues, Pietro Caputo for I Movimenti. Why give up that control instead of keeping everything in-house?

I know this will sound cliche, but our products are made to be shared. So why not share the creative process as well? That's one reason.

The other is that Rob and Pietro are not just business partners, above all they're great friends. They were the ones who helped us understand and truly appreciate rum when we first entered what was then a completely new category for us. It felt only natural to continue that journey together.

Last but not least, there's their expertise. The people we choose to work with are, without a doubt, among the most knowledgeable and respected experts in the world of rum and spirits. We learn from them constantly, and I believe our products are better because of it.

Straight question: when a label says "by Robert Bauer", how much is genuine co-selection and how much is borrowing a trusted name to move a cask? Walk me through who actually picks the liquid.

The answer isn't that simple, because it depends on the particular cask and the project.

In many cases, our collaborators choose from casks we already own. That means the initial selection was made by us when we decided to acquire the casks, often years before they were bottled. We then present a selection from our inventory to Rob or Pietro, who choose the casks they believe best fit the concept of the series. In that sense I think the term co-selection is entirely accurate. A great example is our Rum of the Year 2024, the Long Pond 1983 from The Sins. We had owned that cask for several years before Rob selected it for the project.

There are also projects where the selection starts from scratch. In those cases we taste samples together and decide collectively which cask to acquire. That was the case with our Lheraud Cognac and one of our latest RRL releases, which Rob, Piotr and I selected together during a visit to a warehouse in Cognac, or Marie-Galante. Take our latest release, The Virtues Patience: Rob blind-tasted more than 60 armagnac samples before choosing the one for the project. It took him almost a month to identify the winning cask.

So the process isn't always identical, but the names on the labels represent genuine involvement, not simply an endorsement.

The Sins and the casks

The Sins puts a 56-year-old armagnac next to a Jamaican rum next to a Springbank. Most collectors live in one lane their whole life. What's the argument for forcing all of it into one series?

If you like apples, you can still like oranges, right? For me it's all about freedom of choice. I became a rum lover after spending many years as a whisky enthusiast. Our palates evolve over time, and the world of spirits has so much to offer, so why limit yourself to a single category? Explore, stay curious, and enjoy the journey.

The more we tasted, the more we realised that the idea of a truly great spirit is surprisingly universal. Whether it's rum, whisky, cognac, armagnac or calvados, the same qualities matter: complexity, balance, texture, length, alcohol integration and character. Those are not category-specific, they're the hallmarks of exceptional spirits.

Take our HD 1983 as an example, sorry for the product placement. RumX calls it Excellent, but what's interesting is that people with very different preferences tend to agree on its quality. That suggests there are certain benchmarks of excellence that transcend categories.

That was the idea behind The Sins. We wanted to curate seven benchmark spirits from seven different categories and invite people to compare them, not to decide which category is best, but to discover what greatness looks like in each of them. It's a bit like comparing masterpieces by different painters. You don't have to choose between Rembrandt and Monet to appreciate both. And who knows, you might discover, just as we did, that some days call for a rum, others for a cognac, a whisky, an armagnac or a calvados. Seven sins for seven days of the week? Just remember to enjoy them responsibly.

A 40-year-old Long Pond or a 42-year-old Hampden basically doesn't exist on the open market anymore. How do you actually get to these casks: relationships, money, or being in the right room ten years ago?

I'd say it's a mixture of all three. Relationships matter, experience matters, and yes, sometimes it's about being in the right place at the right time.

We've been doing this for almost 15 years now, and I suppose that's the reward for committing yourself to something for long enough. Over time you build trust, people get to know what you're looking for, and opportunities begin to find you as much as you find them.

That said, none of it would be possible without the incredible people we've had the privilege of meeting along the way. So a big thank you to all our friends in the world of spirits.

You built The Virtues as the mirror to The Sins. Was that always the plan, or did Sins do so well you needed a sequel? And how do you stop seven of everything from turning into a formula?

We somehow knew the idea of the seven deadly sins had the potential to be successful from the very beginning. Well, perhaps hoped is a better word, and fortunately it turned out that way. Since the concept was inspired by Dante Alighieri's Divine Comedy, we always knew that The Virtues would naturally follow. The two series were conceived as companions from the outset, not as a sequel created because The Sins sold well.

As for avoiding a formula, I think that's where our freedom as independent bottlers comes into play. Every release tells a different story, explores a different spirit and brings together different people. The framework may stay the same, but the content is always new. And judging by our customers' reactions, they seem to enjoy discovering different categories within a familiar concept. We'd certainly like to continue that approach to an extent, as long as it keeps inspiring us and our audience alike.

Price, auctions and flipping

A single Distilia bottle runs from around 150 € to over 1,000 €, and the full Sins set was 5,700 €. You know most of the RumX community will never buy at that level. Who is Distilia really for, and are you at peace with pricing most rum lovers out?

It's a difficult question because there are several aspects to consider. First and foremost, we simply love exceptional spirits. And exceptional quality comes at a price. Once you add rarity, provenance and uniqueness, a particular distillery, vintage or cask, the price inevitably increases.

Having bottled extraordinary spirits such as our Long Pond 1983 or Savanna 2008, it's difficult to lower your own standards. Of course it's impossible to release unicorns all the time, but we always strive to maintain the same philosophy of quality, and that naturally influences our pricing. We've also never wanted to compete on price. We'd much rather compete on quality, design, storytelling and customer experience. That naturally positions us at the premium end of the market.

That said, Distilia isn't meant to be exclusive for the sake of being exclusive. We know not everyone wants, or is able, to spend 500 € or 1,000 € on a bottle. That's exactly why we're about to introduce a new range called Distilia Essentials, offering outstanding spirits at a more accessible price point. We hope that will allow more people to discover what Distilia is all about.

The Floral Rum Series sells only through Catawiki auctions: no fixed price, highest bidder wins. It was your first release built for an outside partner. What was the thinking, was it a fight internally, and doesn't auction-only push you even further toward investors and away from drinkers?

Thanks for asking, because I know some people criticised the idea, assuming we were simply trying to drive prices up. In reality it was quite the opposite. One of the conditions of our partnership with Catawiki was that every bottle would be offered with no reserve price. We wanted everyone to have an equal opportunity to buy a bottle at its true market value, even if that value turned out to be just 1 €. Fortunately that never happened, but we were prepared to take that risk.

The second reason was straightforward: brand building and reaching a completely new audience. Catawiki has an incredible international community of collectors and enthusiasts, many of whom had never come across Distilia before. Looking back after a few years, I have no doubt it was the right decision. It has been a genuine win-win, for us, for Catawiki and for our customers.

And interestingly, we've found that many of the winning bidders are genuine enthusiasts who open and enjoy the bottles rather than treat them as investments. Auctions simply allow the market to determine the price, they don't determine what people do with the bottle afterwards. For anyone reading this, here's a little tip: our bottles sometimes sell at remarkably competitive prices, so it's worth keeping an eye on our auctions.

Plenty of your bottles get bought, never opened, and flipped later at a markup. As the person who chose that liquid to be tasted, how does it feel watching it become a trading chip that never gets poured?

No one knows the exact numbers, but to the best of my knowledge a large proportion of our bottles are actually opened and enjoyed. Naturally, not everyone wants or can afford to spend several hundred euros on a bottle, which is why communities like RumX are so valuable. I regularly see our bottles being cracked open and shared among enthusiasts as so-called splits, and I love that. That's exactly what they were bottled for.

And if some bottles end up being kept as collectors' items, I take that as a compliment. I completely understand why people choose to keep certain bottles unopened. For the same reason, my heart sinks every time I open one of the last few bottles of Lheraud 1980 that I keep in my own cellar. Some releases are genuinely once-in-a-lifetime, and I can imagine that in ten or twenty years they'll be appreciated even more, not necessarily because they'll be worth more, but because there will be so few left to experience.

At the end of the day, once a bottle leaves our warehouse it's no longer ours. It belongs to the person who bought it, and they should enjoy it in whatever way gives them the most satisfaction.

Distilia is Polish, run out of Berlin, with casks stored in Hong Kong. The prestige end of this scene is Italian, French and British names: Velier, L'Esprit, Silver Seal. Has coming from Poland ever been a disadvantage, and did you have to work harder to be taken seriously at the top table?

The community of spirit lovers is remarkably open-minded and welcoming. In my experience, people don't care where you're from, they care about what's in the bottle. If the quality is there, you'll earn their respect regardless of your passport.

In fact, one of the things I love most about this industry is that it brings together people from all over the world who share the same passion. That's always mattered far more than geography.

Community and the award

In 2024 the RumX community voted your Long Pond 1983 Avarice Rum of the Year. You've won trade medals too. What does a community vote give you that a judged award doesn't, or is it the other way round?

I don't want to say I value one more than the other, every accolade matters. But there is something special about recognition that comes directly from the community, from the people who actually open and drink our bottles.

Their feedback is invaluable. It helps us create better products, seek out even better casks and continue improving. Thanks to RumX that feedback is also immediate, and in many cases very personal, as we actually know many of the people who leave their reviews.

And yes, if I'm allowed a little moment of vanity, it's also incredibly rewarding. Knowing that people genuinely appreciate what we do gives us the motivation to work even harder.

Your Hampden 1983 Virtues Chastity sits at 9.5 on RumX, right at the top. I'm a Hampden obsessive myself, I've got the C<>H mark tattooed on me. What is it about these old, quiet, high-strength casks that makes tasters lose it, when a punchy young Hampden gets people just as excited for a tenth of the price?

That's exactly what makes the rum category so exciting. You can still find incredible rums at very reasonable prices, and thank God for that.

Our HD 1983 offers a completely different experience from the younger, funkier expressions, and that's the beauty of it. The elegance, depth and balance came with age. Some people will fall in love with that style, others will always prefer the explosive character of young Hampdens. And that's perfectly fine.

If you're asking whether it's worth the money, my answer is: hell yes. It's a time machine. It takes you on a journey through the history of rum. It's a tangible piece of Jamaica's rum heritage, and there are very few elegant rums of this age still in existence. That's what makes it so special.

Let me add one more thing. I'm a car guy, I love vintage cars. Not because they're objectively better, in many ways they aren't. Modern cars are safer, more comfortable, more efficient and technically superior. But to me they often lack that intangible X factor. Some people understand exactly what I mean, others don't. Again, that's perfectly fine. For me, old rum is the same. A young Hampden can be thrilling, just as a modern sports car can be breathtaking. But every now and then you want to experience something different, more mature, more subtle, or elegant. If you can, I wouldn't choose between them, I'd enjoy both.

The future

You built the brand on only the top end, no compromise. Do you stay a pure luxury house forever, or does an affordable entry-level Distilia eventually come, something a curious newcomer can actually buy, without cheapening the name? Where do you honestly land?

We'll certainly remain focused on fine and rare spirits. That's in Distilia's DNA and it's not going to change. At the same time, we want to explore new territories and welcome more people into our world.

Did I mention Distilia Essentials already? That range is our way of offering more accessible bottles without compromising on quality. The price point may be different, but our standards won't be.

What's the next category or distillery you're itching to bottle that you haven't cracked yet? And is there a white whale cask you've chased for years and still can't get?

Once you reach the top of one mountain, you realise there are countless others waiting to be climbed. We stay hungry because we believe there are always even finer treasures still to be discovered.

As for a particular white whale, I'd rather not name one. Some of the best casks we've bottled came from opportunities we never expected, while some of the ones we chased for years simply never happened. That's part of what makes this business so fascinating. The search never really ends, and I hope it never does.

Personal

Forget the business for a second. Which bottle in your own collection would you never sell at any price, and why that one?

Domaine de Courcelles 1972, 54 percent. It's incredibly special to me because it was the bottle that made me realise how extraordinary rum could be. Looking back, it was probably the beginning of everything that followed. And I know for a fact I'll never sell my bottle, it's already open.

I'd also love to keep one bottle of every Distilia release, but I know that's impossible. The temptation to open them is simply stronger than my will to keep them sealed.

Quick-fire, one line each: Guyana or Jamaica. A rum you were wrong about. The most overrated thing in high-end rum right now.

Jamaica. Unaged white rhum agricole. Tropical ageing.

Originally published by RumX, August 2, 2026. Interview conducted by Oliver Gerhardt, founder of RumX.