Answer: "...why you can't trust Canadian reviews...

[Capn Jimbo]

Question: Who is the Frozen Wonder?


Quick, read this and tell me who wrote it...

"Patron Silver Tequila (linked) is a pure 100% Agave Tequila made from agave grown in the highlands of Jalisco, Mexico. The Agave is 6 to 7 years old when harvested, and the heart of the plant or the piña is all that is used. These piñas are cut and slowly steamed in masonry ovens for 79 hours. The steamed piñas are then shredded and placed into a traditional stone pit, where they are broken (or shredded) into finer pieces with a large stone milling wheel called a Tahona. The resulting juice is then fermented for 72 hours in a wooden fermentation vat, and distilled twice in copper pot stills.

As a highland tequila,we can expect the Patron Tequila to exhibit strong fruity citrus notes and to have a little hot pepper in the delivery and the finish. The company was created in 1989 when John Paul DeJoria, and Martin Crowley formed The Patrón Spirits Company with the stated singular goal of producing “the best tequila in the world.”

Patron, right? Of course not. With not a shred of credit, the Wolf published his version of Patron's marketing hype as if it were his own? Earth to Wolfboy, if you really haven't visited the facility, if you lack intimate personal knowledge, wouldn't adding the line "...according to the distiller..." be in order?

You decide.

Now let's get to the fun part. Apart from having a rather unique palate, it has appeared that this reviewer believes what we are all after is his own private palate and preferences. I respectfully disagree. Gentlemen and women may disagree, but most of us prefer reviewers who simply and competently judge the quality of the spirit based on others of its class or style, sans free plugs.

In fact, leading reviewers (think Michael Jackson, Dave Broom, F. Paul Pacult, et al) make clear that their personal preferences have little to do with it. But from the same review...

"I had trouble scoring this review, as it felt to me that my scores should be higher for a spirit which possibly has the quintessential flavour profile for its category. Then again my scoring has always been about my enjoyment, rather than my perception of quality."

(emphasis added)

What?!?!

Is he serious? I guess so. Let's say that again. The Wolf is all about, well, the Wolf. Quality apparently has less to do with it, sucking hind tit to his quirky personal palate and preferences. Is this bizarre? You decide..


Just how quirky is the furball?

Very. This poster review concludes with the Furry tongued reviewer inventing another of his "...series of Tequila cocktails named after the Travis McGee novels of American author John D. MacDonald. I have always like the Travis McGee novels, and the titles of these novels just seem to me to be particularly well suited to be also the names of great cocktails." Gee, I wonder how this stands with his copyright claim?

BTW, I join the Wolfboy in his acclaim for the (copyrighted) novels of John D. MacDonald and his 21 book series about Travis McGee. This singular Florida author is respected by all those who followed him in Florida based fiction novels. I own all 21 of them. McGee's fictional houseboat was said to be at slip F-18 at the world famous Bahia Mar in our own Fort Lauderdale, and which in real life was marked by a bronze plaque.

I live here, and I've been there. It's a pilgrimage for McGee lovers.

Here's the funny part. Travis McGee wasn't really a tequila drinker. To the contrary he was a beer man with an affinity for Carta Blanca, Harp and Guiness, among others. His go to drink was gin - the original, made in England, PlymouthGin. When his proper Plymouth production was moved to America, he switched to Boodles Gin. His special drink?

The McGee Special Martini: two tumblers filled two-thirds with cracked ice, season with sherry (then strained and dumped), filled to the top with Plymouth Gin (later Boodles), rub the rim with a twist of lemon, squeeze a drop or two of oil into the drink, throw away the twist and voila!

"Two McGee's" he'd exclaim. But tequila??

Rarely, if ever. But remember, you're in Canadian airheadspace now. No rules, 9% of anything but whisky in their "Candian Whisky", make it up as you go along, and last, claims of competence and ownership. Disagree?

I do too. It may be worse...

[da'rum]

Hey Jim this is one of the times where I'm going to not entirely agree with you. Now before you don the chain mail and reach for your cutlass let me just say I'm not a fan of AW either. He is one of those 'confilct of interest review prostitutes that seems would hump a marketing departments leg for a scratch on the belly and a tid bit (see free sample, trip etc), he is one of those that new rum appreciaters should be warned about.

However, I don't see a problem with a reviewer basing his reviews on his personal preferences and tastes I think reviewers like this have a role to play. OK they are not the high echelon of taste and quality facts, but a reader of their reviews can make their own judgement as to the quality of the review recommendation based on the reviewers notes, other reviews, other writings on his/her blog, review history and also by taking the risk and purchasing a bottle that scored highly by the reviewer and then matching that bottle to what the reviewer said about it.

I think personal opinion reviewers are equally relevant for a newcomer as perhaps a hardened expert reviewer as they can be more accessable to the readers thoughts.

The natural progression of a drinker, of whatever beverage, will be, to as he develops his own taste and quality markers, to start reading the 'Michael Jackson, Dave Broom, F. Paul Pacult's and move away from the more personal view based reviewers.

This is all an important part of a appreciaters journey.

So, sell out bastards NO NO NO
Personal untainted by commercial interests reviews , why not?

Cheers.

[Capn Jimbo]

A response...

Thanks very much for a valid and alternative viewpoint.

If what one is after is just personal opinion, "reviewers" are not needed at all. Just check in at say, The Shillery, and you'll find personal opinions galore. Most really don't understand rum, and suffer from the same prejudices and misunderstandings of those who went before. The blind leading the blind. Following this method - as I did - leads to large collections, much wasted cash, and ending still no closer to understanding and appreciating rum.

What a waste!

Certainly we can learn from other students, other amateur opinionators, but this is very ineffective, and to the contrary may lead to many new misunderstandings that will - sooner or later - have to be unlearned. As in any endeavor we might do better for ourselves to learn from knowledgable and accessible masters - few of whom inject their own personal preferences but report the spirit itself and to how and why it presents itself.

Would you rather learn a new skill from another bumbler or from a wonderful, experienced and effective teacher?


About Accessibility

About accessibility, we are very much in agreement. You are right when you imply that many of the so-called expert reviews use inaccessible descriptors. Indeed that was one of the base reasons for The Project. We've tried very hard to use both descriptors and descriptions that are extremely accessible (like the rum we name "Bananas Foster").

On the other hand, most of the personal preference posts are equally inaccessbile for other reasons: they are mostly incompetent, and are merely lists of descriptors. One of my early posts took the "personal preference" posts of three well known small "reviewers", whose findings were wildly different. The surprise conclusion: they were all of the same rum!

My point: the lists of descriptors, followed by a personal preference are not particularly useful. What is the reader to do? Which of those three personal opinions should he have trusted? And this dilemma is only magnified by the many thousands of differing and less than competent postings. Is this really helpful?

Although the opinions of the very best reviewers also differ, their differences are far less, and their commonalities far greater, including scoring. Their experience and skill make this so. Still your point is well taken, and there may be a compromise - certainly The Rum Project is designed for exactly the type of reader you describe, as are a number of the reviewers covered in the Reviewer's Reviews, this section.

Perhaps this is the compromise you propose.

An Example

Sue Sea really doesn't like whiskey; nor is she a big fan of sweet liqueurs. She really has two choices: to either not review them, or to review them on their own standing. Was the whisky harmonious? Balanced? Integrated? Complex? And so on. She will give a good score for something she really doesn't like personally, because the spirit was well presented and a fine example of the style or genre.

As she (and the very best reviewers) puts it "No one is interested in my personal preferences - they want to know whether its a well done spirit, and have enough information to decide for themselves". Indeed this is a real challenge. To do the spirit credit, one must put aside personal preference and focus on the spirit and how it compares to others in the same category, style and intent - and particularly - to a reference standard if there is one.

It is fair to say that by working very hard to minimize our own personal preferences and bias, we have become open to appreciating spirits that we'd once rejected on their face.

You won't get any of this from most of what pass for "rum review" sites. You'll get a long list of descriptors, some clever or not so clever writing, and what is usually a biased personal opinion and "score", often using defective methods and systems. You don't learn from these presentations - you are actually misled by them and off you go down the primrose path. The Reviewer's Reviews attempt to present the biases of these erstwhile and self-appointed "reviewers" and distinguish the few good from the many bad and ugly.

In AW's case you also have the factors of dependence on a great number of freebies which come with sticky softball strings well attached. Worse yet, he appears to suffer a hypertaster's, bitter-centered palate - a severe bias experienced by only about 20% of the population. Unless you too are part of this group, the "reviews" may be very misleading. There is far more misinformation than information on such sites.

At the inception, The Rum Project was well aware of these issues, and was designed from the start with a focus on real education, independence, freedom from personal bias or commercial influence, and accessibility. The goal: to give other idiots the tools needed to avoid misinformation and a way to approach rum understanding and appreciation without bias. But The Project aside...

In sum one might do better by not ending with leading reviewers, but begin with them. Again, thanks very much for your views.

[Capn Jimbo]

As Columbo used to say "...just one more question..."



This is a tease, but I recently had a revealing interchange with yet another commercial awards program, this one called "SIPS". Their idea was to assemble a group of non-expert rum drinkers to blind taste and score rums. This would accord well with the notion that somehow, the opinion of the blind may somehow open one's eyes, lol.

It won't of course.

There's also another website that simply accumulates public votes on various spirits and other items. As for SIPS: really is nothing more than a business based on their own unique selling proposition, namely "Don't trust biased experts, trust your fellow idiot!". This is pretty much backward, actually...

It's the public who are not only biased by commercial influence, but also by general ignorance. It would surely be different if we could only separate out the educated afficianados. By public demand Bacardi is the rum to buy.

Is it?

All these commercial ventures are gathering are the opinions of the buying public who are heavily, heavily influenced by not only glowing spirits advertising, but by those of the commercially biased faux reviewers, and last by other members of the public who are likewise influenced. Their tastes and preferences are not really developed.

A great big circle jerk. Or a circular drinking squad, lol...

[NCyankee]

The company was created in 1989 when John Paul DeJoria, and Martin Crowley formed The Patrón Spirits Company with the stated singular goal of producing “the best tequila in the world.”

Such marketing bullshit - the hilarious part of it is, until 2002 Patron didn't produce any tequila whatsoever, they merely purchased Tequila produced by Siete leguas, slapped their own label on it, and sold it as "Patron".

The ironic thing is - up until they got too big for Siete Leguas and started making their own Tequila, they actually were one of the best Tequilas in the world. Now it is one of the most mediocre.

You can still buy Siete leguas, and it is still excellent. Also considerably cheaper than Patron in most areas.

[da'rum]

Ha! now that's good information. A great highlight to the title of the thread.

[bearmark]

It's not unusual for a new distiller to source distillates from other distillers until they have an opportunity to ramp up production and/or properly age their own distillates.

A great example is High West Distillery, who has produced vodkas and un-aged whiskeys, while demonstrating a mastery of blending sourced whiskeys to produce some great products. Exemplary examples of the latter include: Rendezvous Rye, Double Rye, Bourye, Son of Bourye, Campfire, 12 Year Old Rye, 16 Year Old Rocky Mountain Rye and 21 Year Old Rocky Mountain Rye.

To my knowledge, High West has only produced a single product that was distilled and aged in their Park City, UT facility. That was Valley Tan Oat Whiskey, which is already sold out. Based on my experience with their sourced products, I'm looking forward to more great things from their distillery. I surely hope that they don't suffer the demise in quality that has plagued Patron, which I agree is overpriced, average tequila.

By the way, if you want to try some great tequila in a bit lower price range than Patron (but still not cheap), then check out Herradura Añejo or El Tesoro Añejo (my current favorite). If you want to sample a unique and intriguing tequila, then try to find Excellia Blanco or Reposado. Excellia gets tequila from El Tesoro and ships it to France to be finished in Grand Cru Sauternes wine casks and in Cognac barrels. It's a uniquely flavored tequila.


*******
Capn's Log: Thanks for the post and for the recommendation. However, the topic is/was distiller bullshit, and the (mis)expression of personal preference in rum reviews.

[NCyankee]

It's not unusual for a new distiller to source distillates from other distillers until they have an opportunity to ramp up production and/or properly age their own distillates.

The difference is tequila isn't aged nearly as long as whiskey, repos less than a year and few anejos more than 2 years. It certainly doesn't take 13 years to get a tequila brand up and running. This was a pure Sidney frank-type move, similar to what Deleon is trying to do now - the difference is according to reports Deleon is not nearly worth the $100+ price tag, in fact most say it is pretty mediocre, though I assume "status-conscious" consumers are buying it because I haven't seen any meaningful price drop yet.

I have the whole Herradura line, interesting taste though not my favorite. My El tesoro anejo (newer olive oil bottle) is almost empty, and I recently got a bottle of the repo at a great price in Florida when I was on vacation. It also has an unusual briney taste, some call it "green olive". I would love to get my hands on some ET white label treasure bottles, which is supposed to be superior to the current product, but they are getting rarer by the day.

Siete Leguas has more of a "classic" Tequila flavor profile, and is considered by many to be the standard for that profile. Also highly regarded are Tapatio (which just recently began US distribution) and Fortaleza/Los Abuelos.

My favorite blanco Tequila is Casa Noble, which has its own unique earthy flavor profile. I recently was able to try the anejo and it is excellent.

[Capn Jimbo]

Detour Ahead...


We are now officially off-topic, thanks for all your posts and do feel free to carry on in a separate thread...