CUBAY 10 year rum, Cuba

A good rum is a beautiful thing to savor... different then wine, which can (at times) be consumed with great zeal and gusto, rum (especially of a certain age) demands to be taken seriously.

Aged rums will tantalize with their layered and nuanced bouquets, enticing with sharp pungent earthy fragrances and swirling in your glass with a mildly mystical etheralness.

Rum, is good.

The Cubans will tell you, as soon as your plane has landed, that now it's time to start taking your Vitamin "R"(um). Upset stomach? Vitamin "R". A little jet-lag? Vitamin "R". Too drunk?! VITAMIN "R"! You can see, easily, how much I love the Cuban people and their sensibilities. Imagine if "Sense & Sensibility" had been set in Cuba... that would have been a great movie! **grin**

But seriously, aged rums have as much capacity towards elegance, style and structure as any fine cognac, scotch or brandy I've ever tried. Should you ever have the chance, I invite you to compare on your own.

10 Year Ron Cubay, CUBA

$30 CUC (Cuban Tourist Currency),

Available in Great Britain (15 GBP), Spain (20 Euro), Chile

Not available in North America

• pale amber color with orangish-gold hues in the center, very strong legs indicative of high alcohol, high sugars
• Ron Cumay has a particular nose which is most often characterized by the licorice notes that dominate; followed by orange zest, cedar-like woodsy notes, honeyed apricot finish
• big mouth feel without flabbiness, this rum (ron) sits well and allows one the luxury of wanting to swirl a little to savor the nuances; orange and licorice certainly hit the palate with a moderate++ to full intensity, leaving little room for the other layers to come in until after 10 seconds or so... wood notes, minimal sugary finish

     IMHO (In My Humble Opinion), this is a grown-ups rum. Don't drink this with cola (and if you must - try it with 2 parts rum to 1 part cola, or better yet 1 part ginger ale), drink this on it's own and at least taste the hard work someone has put into this... that being said, this would make a deadly "Dark & Stormy". I have enjoyed this many times with a cigar, from mild cigars to maduro, and have enjoyed its layers being pulled in different directions from the different cigars. It certainly has enough structure to handle a maduro, but not so much as to decimate a Macanudo or a Davidoff.

     I much prefer this rum with (1) singular ice-cube to tone down the hot alcohol & allow some of the finer aromas a chance to really present themselves. Be warned though - just as with a fine wine, too much ice will numb the aromas almost completely, and thus, the flavors as well.

CIN-CIN! SLAINTE!

English Harbor Aged Rum, Antigua

Well it's not often that I review rum, but as Fall turns to Winter and masks itself as Summer, I find myself sitting by a roaring fireplace more and more.

We had good friends over to the house just last night in fact! One of them, Jay, is as much of a cigar fan as I am and we both had Cuban Cohiba Esplendidos. Of course, that was when the rum came out and the conversation became even more relaxed.

English Harbor Rum is quite new to the rum scene; whereas some Cuban distilleries can trace their history back several centuries, EHR created it's first dark rum in the 1950's, and only started importing to North America in 2004.

And praise has fallen upon them! Two double-gold awards at the San Francisco Spirits Competition in 2004 and 2005 and, IMHO, worthy of those honors.

English Harbor, 5 year aged rum, Antigua
40%, $31 (BCLCB), **very good value**

• pale caramel/amber color
• moderately intense nose of caramel, heather, oak, vanilla, apples
• moderate+ intense flavors that mimic the nose... palate starts with the caramel apples, oak/vanilla/heather and slight peaty-acidic finish

This rum almost drinks like an Irish whiskey: think Tullimore Dew rather then a Bushmills. That touch of sweetness isn't overpowering, but rather compliments the slight orchard fruit and herbaceous floral notes. A wonderful pairing for a medium cigar, it may pale beside a robusto or even slightly overpower a mild cigar such as a Davidoff.

Pair it with Cohiba or Macanudo. With food you ask? Try any slightly sweet dessert with nuts; Arabic desserts such as Halva with cheese, pistachio biscotti, almond gelato, etc...

Cin-cin! Slainte!