Spirits Director, Brad Miller on the Upcoming "Styles of Rum" Dinner

JUST CAN'T WAIT for the weather to warm up, the backyard BBQ and the summer libations? Well, let's start a little early with our Styles of Rum dinner on March 29th at Daniel's Broiler - Lake Union.

This event will feature some great food pairing, created by Chef Mike Hillyer and some wonderful rums from around the world. While Chef Mike puts the final touches on the menu, we can discuss the rum.

Our guest speakers for the evening will include Rocky Yeh, an importer of a wide variety of rums, and Dragos Axinte, Proprietario of Novo Fogo Cachaca. He produces two wonderful, 100% organic cachacas from the Southern Brazil Atlantic rainforest. These two cachacas are distilled in small batches from copper pot stills. The entire operation is a zero-waste distillery and recycles everything, including the glass for the bottles. Heck, they even run their cars on the distillate!

Rocky Yeh will discuss a few rums such as Dos Maderas rum, distilled and initially aged in Barbados and Guyana and then shipped to the bodegas of Williams and Humbert's in Spain. It is then aged for 5 years in Sherry casks and then again in Pedro Ximenez Sherry casks for an additional 3-5 years.

Also from Martinique will be the venerable Rhum Clement a Rhum Vieux Agricole. This mahogany-hued rhum is soft and has semi-sweet aromas with tastes of chocolate, figs and amaretto. The Creole Shrubb will also be part of our dinner experience, a orange liqueur made from rhum.

If that's not enough, we'll also taste Ron Zacapa 23 from Guatemala, a rum that's fantastic by itself. High in the mountains, Ron Zacapa is aged in a solera process, which is a blend of rums. This process originated with the making of Sherry in Spain. This rum is sweet with a touch of spice, hints of vanilla and a very well-balanced variety of aromas.

There will be a few surprises, plenty of information, wonderful crafted cocktails and other rums that will be available for tasting. Did we say a few surprises? I hope this piques your interest, and look forward to you making reservations at finespirits@schwartzbros.com. Or call 425-990-6310. The event begins at 6:30 PM, March 29th, 2011. We'll see you there!

- Brad Miller