I've always enjoyed the boyz over at Liquorature and their unique website featuring whisky, rum and literature. These are otherwise intelligent men who have a way with words, no doubt due to their avid interest in good writing and - we hope - good spirits. Of the crew, only "Lance" seems to be the outlier who doesn't appreciate whisky, but adores rum and writes great and entertaining reviews.
Good on him.
When I first found Lance and Liquorature I was quite taken, and remained so to this day. It's a fun read. But it was not long before I undertook the massive and controversial project of reviewing the reviewers and finally did so with Lance and his eloquent reviews. Unfortunately, a close analysis revealed a significant bias for extreme age and price. In fact you could predict his scoring on just those two factors...
Very old and expensive - top review. Young and modest cost - just a mixer. Surprisingly, even rums like MGXO were downgraded on this apparent basis. Pretty shocking. My conclusion:
A great site, a great read, but there's no there there. Caution, please.
Lance turns on me...
Lance did not take well to our Reviewer's Review, and simply couldn't understand how I could like his reviews and website but still give him a low score as a reviewer.
It's called honesty Lance. I do like your site, I do enjoy your magnificent writing, but I have to call you on your biases. Back to the story.
Not so long ago, Lance reviewed what he called "an exciting new find", namely Tanduay Superior 12 Year rum from India. He gave this rum an absolutely smashing review, no doubt based on its hard-to-find exclusivity...
Wow! I thought. Not having this "gem" available in south Florida, I did my usual due diligence and visited Tanduay's website. What I found was shocking...Lance: "...just when I thought I had a handle on the major brands of the world, this one came out of nowhere and smacked me upside the head. If nothing else, it says that though I may have tasted and reviewed more rums than most, there are always gems from other places previously unconsidered that will just amaze, delight and please with their overall excellence."
1. Tanduay states that their products are actually a mixture of purchased ingredients: “alcohol” (brought in by tankers from Asian Alcohol), “demineralized water”, “sugar” (from Victorias Milling Corp) and “other ingredients” (flavorings from International Flavors).
2. Their “rums” are literally assembled from these ingredients. Not what I consider a real rum at all, but more resembling a highly distilled, high alcohol, tasteless mass produced alcohol (hopefully cane based) to which other ingredients are added to create a rumlike profile. Their mass of flavored and spiced rums are produced in a similar way.
3. Even their age statements are misleading, as it is the oldest rum in the bottle that is labeled. A con job.
And I said so (sans con job) in his comments section.
Lance takes Umbrage (and doesn't return it)
After a couple respectful exchanges, Lance decided to conclude the matter with a terse closer...
I applaud his honesty in defining the difference between his Liquorature rum reviews and our own. Ostensibly, and like his Canadian Wolf pal, he doesn't care what's in it or how it was made, but simply reports whether it tastes good. Rum and rum-like are the same thing to him.Lance: "Maybe so, but this is Liquorature, not the Rum Project, and such assessments are best left to your site, not ours. Here we deal in reviews of spirits we have tasted."
But the truth is different, as I'm sure you'd agree...
Let's face it. After you've just exclaimed the "excellence" of a hard-to-acquire spirit that you review as an "exclusive" - well, it's pretty hard to backpedal and admit that this fantastic new rum is a just a phonied up, flavored, alcohol-based product.
I concluded the matter with this...
Frankly, Lance I don't give a damn - if we disagree. You did read the book, didn't you?Moi: "Lance, it goes without saying that if you read three different reviews, you’ll get three different “assessments” of the presentation, aroma, flavors and probably different ratings. What I reported is not my opinion or assessment/review: rather it is simply a report of what the distiller itself admits – that they don’t distill their own rum, but purchase it as a high proof “alcohol”, to which they add sugar, flavorings and other additives.
This is not my “assessment”‘; it is simply a fact published by Tanduay at their website. Tanduay, by their own admission, is selling what should be labeled “flavored or spiced rum”, but is not. It is hardly fair to compare a phonied up “rum” (that achieves its aromas and flavors cheaply and artificially) to real, true and unaldulterated rums whose profile is the result of honest and expensive distillation and aging. Flavored rums should be identified, particularly when the distiller admits the deception.
At The Rum Project we believe the full and whole truth is owed to the reader and purchaser of a drink he or she believes is “rum”, but is not."
