Bar & Bites: From biochemistry to Panamanian rum, Perth-based entrepreneur Donovan Smith has spirit adventure

How did Perth-based booze biz professional Donovan Smith go from studying microbiology in Canada to being chief executive of Casa Baru, a company making rum in Panama? With Casa Baru’s single estate premium rum hitting venues and retail outlets around Perth, Smith sat down with Bar & Bites to unravel his peripatetic career. After quitting his first proper job in a Belfast pharmaceutical company after one day, the South African-born father-of-two found work in the local Guinness packaging plant. Like the creamy white head of the famous Irish stout, Smith surged through various roles with the brewer’s parent company Diageo, including doing a paid MBA while in London working on global strategy until his Scottish mentor decided he needed the “wire brush” — Glaswegian slang for toughening up. Smith and his Perth-raised wife were sent to the US Virgin Islands to establish a commercial distillery to make Captain Morgan rum for the US market. In the Caribbean, Smith met Dick Barba, a distillation and fermentation specialist with a similar spirit of adventure. While in a grocery store in Panama, Barba picked up a pack of sugar he liked, looked at the address and decided, on a whim, to drive six hours to meet the farmer. He discovered the farm near Baru Volcano, around 35km from the border of Costa Rica, was the perfect spot to grow sugarcane for making rum: high altitude, rich volcanic soil, plentiful water and year-round sun. “He just went and bought a still and started in the middle of nowhere,” Smith says. Barba headhunted Smith, who left his 20-year career with Diageo to embark on a mission to make high quality Panamanian rum using hand-crushed cane instead of burning cane fields. Smith says Casa Baru makes pure single estate rum, with no sugar nor caramel added. “There is so much bought, blended and heavily sugared rums on the market,” he adds. “We wanted the chance to do it the right way from crop to drop. “It’s totally fine for people to drink what they like but they should know what they drink.” In addition to several fine rums, Casa Baru makes Xopa, a cold brew coffee liqueur made using the highly coveted Panama Geisha coffee grown in the same microclimate. Casa Baru products are already at Mane Liquor, Boobook and Old Bridge Cellars, with more specialist retail outlets to come, and available at Strzelecki Group venues, including Sorrento Quay at Hillarys and Dolphin Quay at Mandurah marina. “At the end of the day we are just two friends who got lucky enough to find something they love and have fun along the way,” Smith says. “The rest is all a bonus and part of the adventure.”