As you should now know, Lance of Liquorature has come a long way in his reviews and the reporting of his scoring. Other than moi, he is the only - I say ONLY - reviewer who has the cajones to publish a graph of his scores' distribution.
Good on Lance.
Lance also came around to recognize that price and age don't guarantee quality, and further now seems to be speaking to both the issue of purity and unlabeled additives.
Bravo again.
Now mind you, his distributions are still weighted to the high end, but it is inevitable that in time and with his now raised consciousness, things should improve. But as always I digress.
Lance posts a nice interview on Karukera
Karukera is a very hard-to-find cane juice rum from Guadeloupe (est 12 years). Lance recently posted a review (here). In this fine review Lance noted its purity and freedom from additives, and also spoke to the issue of origination. According to Lance, this rum is marked "appellation d’origine". He seemed to assume that this meant that the Karukera is bound by the same voluminous regulations as the Martinique "AOC" rums.
Are they? I'm not sure, but I believe they are not, so I quickly posted this...
A fair question, which either Lance or I, or perhaps you may resolve. Stay tuned...Moi at Liquorature: As far as the “appellation d’origine” labeling, this may need to be distinguished from the “Appellation d’origine controlee” label of Martinique. The “controlee” is important. The latter guarantees not only origin, but also the method of production. The former – in Guadeloupe – does not seem to. If so – and I believe it is – I consider this an advantage as this avoids the voluminous and stifling regulations of Martinique, and allows the kind of artistry exhibited by Barbancourt.
To my knowledge the cane juice rums from Guadeloupe have not yet received the full controlee designation, but this remains to be seen. Question: what is the full designation that appears on the bottle: “appellation d’origine”, “appellation d’origine controlee”, or “AOC Guadeloupe”?
