Hundreds of rums from the Caribbean and beyond will fill the Coral Gables Woman’s Club on Saturday, Nov. 14, as the Miami Rum Renaissance Festival returns for its 17th annual celebration. The event brings producers, collectors and enthusiasts together inside a historic coral rock clubhouse, offering a smaller and more personal experience than the convention-center gatherings that once drew thousands.
The two-day festival begins Friday, Nov. 13, with seminars at the Courtyard by Marriott Coral Gables, 2051 S. Le Jeune Road. Saturday’s Grand Tasting takes place at the Woman’s Club, 1001 E. Ponce de Leon Blvd., with early admission beginning at 12:30 p.m. and general admission at 2 p.m. The event concludes at 5 p.m.
Organized by Robert and Robin Burr, the festival combines the opportunity to sample hundreds of rums with an educational program examining the spirit’s production, history and evolving market.
From thousands of visitors to a more intimate event
The Miami Rum Renaissance Festival began as a gathering of enthusiasts and grew into one of the country’s largest rum-focused events.
In a 2019 interview with Caribbean Journal, Robert Burr recalled that the first gathering took place at Coral Gables’ Venetian Pool in 2008. The annual festival began the following year and eventually moved through Miami Beach and larger venues, including the DoubleTree by Hilton Miami Airport Convention Center.
At its peak, the gathering attracted as many as 4,000 visitors a day, Burr said.
The organizers eventually reconsidered the scale. They wanted an event where attendees could spend more time with producers, learn about individual rums and explore styles that might otherwise receive little attention.
The festival returned to Coral Gables in 2019, moving into the Woman’s Club and limiting attendance to 500 people a day.
The change placed the emphasis on tasting and discovery rather than crowd size.
Burr, publisher of Rob’s Rum Guide, has traveled extensively through rum-producing regions, documenting distilling traditions and evaluating spirits from the Caribbean, Latin America and beyond.
His interest reflects rum’s extraordinary range. Depending on the source material, distillation methods, fermentation, aging and blending, different expressions can vary considerably in aroma, texture and flavor.
Friday’s seminars examine three rum businesses
Friday’s program consists of three presentations exploring how established and emerging brands develop their identities and compete in an increasingly varied market.
The first session, at 12:30 p.m., features Tom Maas, founder of RumChata. His presentation, Building the Brand: RumChata — Tastes Like Money, recounts the development of the cream liqueur and the business decisions that helped turn an experimental product into an internationally distributed brand.
At 2 p.m., Rebuilding the Brand: The Renaissance of Cockspur Rum examines the history and attempted revival of a Barbados brand established in 1884.
The final session, at 3:30 p.m., introduces Ron Tepuy, a Venezuelan rum developed by a team associated with Destilerías Unidas and DUG Group. The presentation focuses on the launch of a new premium offering in an increasingly competitive category.
The festival’s published seminar schedule includes guided tastings, with food and refreshments provided during breaks.
Together, the sessions explore an industry shaped by both longstanding distilling traditions and the constant introduction of new products.
Saturday’s Grand Tasting offers hundreds of selections
Saturday brings the festival’s centerpiece: a room-by-room tasting with exhibitors representing dozens of rum companies.
The organizers expect several hundred expressions, including familiar brands, new releases and limited-edition bottles. Attendees can speak with representatives about production methods, regional styles and aging practices while comparing samples.
General admission includes a tasting glass and samples from participating exhibitors.
The event also features a Private Collection area highlighting luxury, rare and collectible expressions. Exhibitors will offer selected bottles for purchase, and a Caribbean-themed food menu is planned to complement the tastings.
The festival attracts participants from the spirits trade as well as members of the public. Its organizers have promoted South Florida’s close commercial and cultural ties to rum-producing countries as an important reason for holding the event in Miami.
Geography plays a role. The region’s longstanding connections to the Caribbean and Latin America have helped establish a market where rums from many countries are familiar parts of local food and drinking traditions.
For visitors, the range offers an opportunity to compare products made through markedly different traditions, from assertive pot-still styles to lighter column-distilled rums and older barrel-aged expressions.
A clubhouse with a century of civic history
The festival’s setting is closely tied to Coral Gables’ history.
The Coral Gables Woman’s Club was organized in 1923, two years before the city incorporated. Its members raised $10,000 toward construction of their clubhouse on land donated by the city.
Designed by architect H. George Fink, the building was completed in 1936 by the Works Progress Administration using locally quarried oolitic limestone, commonly called coral rock. It was the first WPA project in Coral Gables.
The clubhouse’s Depression-era Moderne architecture incorporates carved ornamentation and two wings originally intended for different civic purposes.
One housed the Woman’s Club. The other became the first permanent home of the Library of Coral Gables, which club members had organized in 1927. The library remained there until its move to Segovia Street in 1969.
The building was listed on the National Register of Historic Places in 1990.
The festival’s connection to the clubhouse extends beyond the rental of its rooms. Robin Burr, a Woman’s Club member, helped lead the fundraising effort for the building’s Florida historical marker, dedicated in 2016.
The marker recognizes the club’s role in the city’s early development, including its work in establishing the public library and its longstanding philanthropic activities.
If you go…
Miami Rum Renaissance Festival, Friday and Saturday, Nov. 13–14
Friday’s seminars run from 12:30 to 5 p.m. at the Courtyard by Marriott Coral Gables, 2051 S. Le Jeune Road. Admission is $89 after Nov. 1 and includes all three seminars, samples, and refreshments during breaks.
Saturday’s Grand Tasting takes place at the Coral Gables Woman’s Club, 1001 E. Ponce de Leon Blvd. General admission is $89, with entry from 2 to 5 p.m. VIP admission is $109 and allows entry beginning at 12:30 p.m.
The event is for adults 21 and older. Tickets and additional information are available at the festival’s official website. Organizers may be contacted at 707-278-6736.
Visitors who intend to sample alcoholic beverages should arrange transportation rather than drive.
The weekend brings together two different forms of Coral Gables history: the city’s longstanding relationship with Caribbean cultures and an early civic institution whose clubhouse continues to serve as a community gathering place nearly 90 years after its completion.
Author: Coral Gables Gazette News Staff
Originally established in 1996 and relaunched as a digital publication in February 2025, the Coral Gables Gazette is an independent local news organization dedicated to factual, objective and accountable community journalism. Our newsroom reports on the people, policies, institutions and events shaping Coral Gables, Florida, providing residents with timely, informative coverage of the issues affecting their community. Our reporting includes City Hall, local government, municipal elections, public spending, real estate development, business, education, arts and culture, and neighborhood affairs throughout the City Beautiful. We follow City Commission decisions, examine public records and report on the businesses, organizations and individuals contributing to Coral Gables. We believe informed residents are essential to a healthy, engaged community. Stories published under the Coral Gables Gazette News Staff byline are prepared or compiled by the publication's editorial team. We strive for accuracy, fairness, transparency and clear distinctions between news reporting, opinion and advertising. Readers are encouraged to submit news tips, corrections, editorial inquiries and story suggestions through our Contact page and learn more about our standards through our Editorial Policy.
