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Rumba in the vineyard, a new Rum King is crowned, and sipping great drinks at Rosewood. Life is good.

all the rums

OK, so it wasn’t quite the Thrilla in Manila, but it did have the makings of medium-weight mini throw down between two guys who just happen to like good booze.

Like all good gatherings these days, it started with an innocent little tweet from William Roman, aka @willsroman, waxing poetically about a little rum-mixed tipple he had just whipped up and was quite enjoying. He made it sound like he was the God of Rum (in his quietly confident way) and was letting his peeps know via the Twitter feed.

Seems he’s a devotee of Pyrat Reserve Rum from Anguilla, and likes to play with different ingredients to mix with it. He fancies himself a bit of a rum mixologist and isn’t afraid to let his social media feed know it.

I follow Will on Twitter, mainly for his wine tweets as he’s part of the Roman family that owns and runs Rosewood Estates Winery and Meadery on the Beamsville Bench. But, also because he’s such a nice guy.

all stuff
The table full of rum and the ingredients.

So, I saw his uncharacteristic bravado on Twitter and challenged him to a “Rumba,” a mano-a-mano throw down, just him and me toe to toe (or glass to glass, as the case may be), mixing and matching some great rums with ingredients to make original cocktals. The fruits of our labour would be judged independently by an impartial judge who would declare a winner and end the chest-pounding in that parallel universe that is Twitter.

will
William Roman.

The winner would crowned King of the Rumba (or something like that). The prize would be … never mind, there was no prize.

Now it may seem odd to hold a competition featuring mainly Caribbean cane-based rums at a Niagara winery, but, hell, Rosewood has this delightful little gazebo on a pond that cries out for a tasting of this stature. So, Will offered it up one hot summer’s day and we gathered up our rums and fruit and juice and spices, made arrangements for a judge to travel from Toronto and got down to throwing down our best rum concoctions.

It should be noted that a few wines and spirits agencies caught wind of the looming battle on the Twitter feed and donated some rums to the cause. And we also attracted the attention of a couple of rum aficionados from Niagara who showed up bearing bottles of rare and exciting rums to add to the lineup. We accepted all offers, being the equal-opportunity rummies that we are.

By the time our Rumba had started we had a nice little gathering of people to cheer us on (it wasn’t like a U2 crowd or anything, but big enough that our judge felt a little bit like a rock star).

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Rumba judge Mike Di Caro.

About our judge: Mike Di Caro, aka @mikedicaro, a full-time imbiber of all things alcohol. He doesn’t have a problem or anything like that, he just loves good booze — craft beer, Ontario wines, gin (yes, gin!) and anything else that’s local and/or well made.

Few know what Mike does for a living but it has something to do with the family business. He’s a writer for the great SpotlightToronto website, weaving interesting stories about craft beer, VQA wine and the people behind the products. I don’t know what he gets paid, but it’s not enough.

He is a very good writer, thoughtful and thought provoking and is deliberate in both his tasting and his opinions.

So, perfect as a judge for the Rumba. And affordable.

The way we loosely structured our throw down was to serve Mike our rum concoctions blind, in other words he didn’t know who made which drink or what was in it. He would sip and savour (and with Mike, savour is a key word) take notes and declare the top three mixed drinks and then his favourite standalone rums at the end of the tasting.

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Another shot of judge Mike Di Caro really enjoying his job.

Pretty basic stuff, and, by the way, not sanctioned by any governing body (just to be clear). The results of this Rumba are totally the opinion of one man, albeit a thoroughly experienced man who has dedicated most of his adult life to the pursuit of fine booze wherever it is made. In other words, perfect to render some sort of final decision.

Here are the rums that Will and I brought for the tasting:

Pyrat XO Reserve (a blend of Caribbean rums aged up to 15 years, about $40 and not available at the LCBO)

El Dorado Five Year Old Rum (Guyana, aged five years, $25 at the LCBO)

El Dorado 12 Year Old Rum (Guyana, aged 12 years in previously usedBourbon barrels, made from finest molasses, $35 LCBO)

Cruzan Spiced Rum #9 (a unique blend of nine all natural spices that hails from the island of St. Croix, $25 LCBO)

Stroh ‘54’ (Austria, $54)

Other rums added to the tasting from guests (thank you to Andrea Glass, aka @goodearthglapyrat usess and Allison Slute, aka @allisonslute (both of them know more about rum than I’ll ever know), and Geoffrey Markle, aka @geoffreymarkle), who was there in spirit:

St. Nicholas Abbey 12 Year Old Limited Reserve Rum (Barbados, sugar-cane based, aged in Bourbon oak barrels, $70, not available in Ontario)

Mount Gilboa Rum (made at Barbados’ oldest distillery, triple distilled, $45 in Barbados and UK only)

Ron Atlantico Private Cask Rum (this is a new Solera system rum from the Dominican Republic produced from fresh cane juice and molasses harvested on a single estate, $30 in the U.S.)

eldo 12 useBarbancourt Rum Reserve 15 Year Old (each year a limited quantity of this Haiti rum is released and made available to connoisseurs, $40 in U.S.)

The tasting:

So I knew I was in for a battle when Will the Thrill started unloading his secret ingredients on the table. He was using some real creativity in his blends.

My concoctions were really quite simple: Lots of organic, tropical juices, fresh limes and lemons, a ginger beer or two, for my mixtures that were going to be 50% rum and 50% other stuff (because I knew the judge liked his rum drinks to taste like rum). Not sure if Will the Thrill did his homework or not but I was hoping he didn’t and thus smothered his rums in other stuff.

We started feeding the judge, two drinks at a time, as he snorted, swirled, sipped and noisily swished the drinks around in his mouth for what seemed like an eternity. He offered no comments as he wrote notes on his smartphone. He didn’t even crack a smile. Judges. They are so serious.

atlanticoThe fine rums were mixed with ginger beer, pineapple juice, lemons, limes, mango juice, lime juice, bitters, cloudy apple juice, mead (didn’t see that one coming), orange zest and orange rind.

We both served Mike about five drinks each for the competition and then Mike was served the rums neat for a separate competition.

Here’s what Mike liked:

1) Werthers Original, by Will the Thrill, made with Stroh ‘54’

Will used his secret ingredient in this sensational drink made with Rosewood Estates Mead Royale, orange zest and the Austrian Stroh ‘54.’ It was smooth and fruity with caramel-honey notes. This should be in a cocktail book. Delicious.

2) Mango Tango Rumba, by me, and the rum drink I reach for more than any other. It’s a simple 50-50 blend of Pyrat XO Reserve Rum (can be substituted with any good rum) and a thick, organic mango juice over ice. Something about mango and rum makes this a wonderful summer drink.

st. nicholas3) The Twist, by Will the Thrill, a simple, yet delicious drink made with Pyrat XO Reserve Rum and one full twist of orange rind. Very tasty.

And thus, by a tiny margain, the kid from Beamsville, Will the Thrill, William the Conqueror, is the new Rumba champion. I have to admit, that mead/rum/orange zest thing was awesome!

And the rums:

1) A tie between the Mount Gilboa Rum (made at Barbados’ oldest distillery, triple distilled, $45 in Barbados and UK only) and the El Dorado 12 Year Old Rum (Guyana, aged 12 years in previously used Bourbon barrels, made from finest molasses, $35 LCBO).

Di Caro said they were “two great rums for two different reasons. Mount Gilboa reminded me of a mild smoky and peaty scotch. The 12 Year Old was fruity with caramel, which I enjoyed and I felt brought out the different flavour characteristics you can get in good molasses-based sugars.”

gilboa2) Ron Atlantico Private Cask Rum (this is a new Solera system rum from the Dominican Republic produced from fresh cane juice and molasses harvested on a single estate, $30 in the U.S.)

This was a very different rum, according to my own notes. Molasses, butterscotch, smoke and sweet and juicy fruit notes. A spicy rum that’s smooth, lush and clean on the palate.

3) St. Nicholas Abbey 12 Year Old Limited Reserve Rum (Barbados, sugar-cane based, aged in Bourbon oak barrels, $70, not available in Ontario)

A rare treat of a rum that shows dried fruit notes, citrus, extremely smooth with caramel on the finish. A rum that deserves to be enjoyed neat.

Three recipes to try:

The Treacle

Use El Dorado 12 Year Old Rum, 1 or 2 ounces

Fill glass with ice, add equal amount of “cloudy” apple juice

Add two drops of bitters

The Demerara Swizzle

Use El Dorada 5 Year Old Rum, 1 or 2 ounces

Add ice, not to the top

Squeeze generous amounts of lime juice in glass and add up to 2 ounces of good pineapple juice

Two drops of bitters

Pyrat Ginger Quencher

Use Pyrat XO Reserve Rum, 1 or 2 ounces

Add equal amount of real Jamaican ginger beer.

Serve over ice

Cruzan Punch

Use Cruzan 9 Spiced Rum, 1 or 2 ounces

Add equal amount of good pineapple juice

Squeeze fresh lemons and limes into glass

Add generous amount of ice.