RumXPs sweep Golden Barrel Awards in UK

[Count Silvio]

Members of the International Rum Experts Panel (RumXPs) dominated the nominations and the social media awards given out recently at the annual dinner ceremony that is part of the RumFest UK experience in London.

All the outstanding social media sites nominated for Golden Rum Barrel Awards -- and their respective writers, journalists and bloggers -- are members of a unique consortium of international judges of rum tasting competitions around the globe.

The awards, nominated by outstanding members of the spirits and beverage trade, recognize excellence in reporting and writing about developments in the category of rum throughout the world.

Read it on the frontpage or at Examiner.

[daff]

finally, we have the results! Thanks for the news!

[Capn Jimbo]

I'm not surprised. The list of those solicited for nominations was dominated by the usual suspects of Burr's XP panel. As an example, The Rum Project is one of the largest independent and non-commerical rum sites on the net, with over 150 rums reviewed, yet...

Our nominations for top rums were not accepted nor considered. Ergo... I'm not surprised. Look, these are commercial endeavors wherein all the distillers and promoters go to bed together to provide abundant "awards" useful in marketing and promotion, and also as a highly profitable "event".

Fun and rewarding? Absolutely. A real competition? Hardly. And there's nothing wrong with that, but let's not kid ourselves. The day of a real competition or comparison based on broadbased entries, judged by independent and competent top tasters, and which publishes all the results - winners and losers - and tasting notes has yet to happen.

But a heck of a lot of harmless and relatively meaningless fun...