From the Rum Renaissance:
"It has been another banner year for Plantation Rum, based in Cognac, France. The company announced today that their products were awarded four Gold and four Best In Category awards from the International Rum Expert Panel judges at the Miami Rum Renaissance Festival.
This is the third year in a row that Plantation rums have received the most awards in this prestigious international RumXP blind tasting competition.
Receiving RumXP Best In Category awards were Plantation Original Dark, Plantation Original Dark Overproof, Plantation Jamaica 2001 and Plantation Pineapple. RumXP Gold awards went to Plantation 3 Stars White, Plantation 20th Anniversary XO, Plantation 5 Year Old Grande Reserve and Plantation Guyana 2005.
Once again, Alexandre Gabriel's Plantation Rums take the most Gold and Best In Class awards at the RumXP international blind tasting competition at the Miami Rum Festival.The Plantation 20th Anniversary XO aged rum also won a Gold award from the new Consumer Rum Jury in their premiere tasting competition, comprised of 20 well qualified rum enthusiast consumers, collectors and experienced rum travelers, offering the perspective of the active and engaged rum buyer in their evaluations.
This unique brand of rums is produced in France, headed by Alexandre Gabriel, Proprietor of Maison Ferrand and Master Blender for Plantation Rum. For the past two decades, Alexandre has been traveling to the Caribbean's best distilleries to acquire rums that he believes will benefit from further aging in Cognac barrels at his facility in France.
Each rum in the Plantation Rum portfolio is made according to its country's traditional technique and expresses the rum characteristics and flavor of its country of origin. While the rums are born in the traditional fashion, produced in rum distilleries and aged in barrels in the tropical sun, they undergo a unique aging process not used by any other rum producer in the industry..."
As always I have a few comments.
I won't bore you with the usual barf about the near total commercial focus of these events. Judges are typically industry insiders whose actual reviewing experience is very limited. Trust me, you wouldn't recognize most of the names; nor would you be likely to have read their "skilled reviews". They are insiders for a reason. On top of that there's now a "Consumer Rum Jury in their premiere tasting competition, comprised of 20 well qualified rum enthusiast consumers, collectors and experienced rum travelers". Although the rum-bellied promoter doesn't appear to name them, you may assume they may well include some of the usual suspects and hangers-on like Bahama Bob, Dave Russell, the Frozen One, Forrest Gump and the like. No topper is left unscrewed to insure favorable publicity among bloggers and butt buddies with keyboards.
Of course the announcement itself seems nothing more than a kneeling tribute/advertisement for Plantation, and repeats most of their opaque claims. For example we're told the distiller has spared no effort to crawl through the Caribbean in search of special distillate - so special though that we never learn who produced it, using what method, for how long aged or in what, at what proof, et al. We seem to learn almost NOTHING short of the country and possibly year of "origin".
Next? We are told this precious and special elixir is then transported for a special second "aging". Astute readers of the Project may recall the analysis of the website which found that again, very little was revealed of the wood, barrel history or usage, or time in barrels of this second aging. Frankly, I think the term "finishing" might be more appropriate, if one considers that a quick dunk in possibly very used, leftover sherry barrels even constitutes that. It get's worse: the claim is made that this super-duper-secret process is "not used by any other rum producer in the industry". Let me be kind...
Horse-fackin-shyt.
Sherry and other finishing has been done for years, perhaps first by Richard Seale (who experimented with other woods), but also by any number of distillers. It's common. Sheesh. We are also blessed with the claim that these highly selective rums were "made according to its country's traditional technique and expresses the rum characteristics and flavor of its country of origin". Really? Really? I've got big news for ya, fellas. While that may be true to a minor degree in Barbados, and to a greater degree in Jamaica, that's about it. We have arrived at a point where rums move around the Carib like the pieces on a checkerboard. In general origin alone has little meaning. Even the raw material - molasses - is mostly imported (often from Brazil). So much for "origin". You buying that?
Last but far from least...
The complete and utter denial or ignoring of sugaring. I simply know that such entities - if you hold a cocked-Glock to their cajones - would try to promote either that (a) sugaring is allowed and no big deal or (b) try to call it by another name (a prize for the first one of you who can post this revisionist term). If sugaring was so trivial, then why oh why does the industry work so hard to deny or minimize it? Why are the proud and skilled marketeers not shouting out to the heavens about their "addition of the finest and rarest, specially processed sugars" to their awesome new products? And how and why is it that the well-altered and sweet Plantations just keep on winning?
Sugar sells, but the industry is ashamed of the secret practice, that's why. They've finally been outed, caught redhanded with their fat, sugared fingers in the cookie jar, and they simply don't know what to do. With nearly 400 sugar tests now completed, and many more to follow, I think that horse has fackin left the barn...
BTW, anyone know that term?
