Awards and Medals

[Ed Hamilton]

This morning I was confronted with a list of awards that various rums had won, some dating back over a hundred years. Are you impressed when you see that XYZ rum won a medal fifty years ago?

Would you be willing to pay $5 more for a bottle that has won a medal in the last ten years? Or, do medals have to be current, within the last five years?

And lastly, how much more important is a silver or gold medal over, say, a bronze one?

For me, the fact that XYZ rum won an award in Paris in 1906 doesn't mean much because I know that the rum bottled in 1906 doesn't have much in common with the bottle that I'm looking at today. However, it does tell me that at least the distillers trademark is still in use.

In other cases, medals that were won for other products, emblazon every label in current use by the distiller.

[mickblueeyes]

I rarely pay attention since I am in the liquor business, but if I am confronted with a new product, I do look, but I also look carefully at the medal dates. Certainly a rum that won a medal in 1906 is probably a shadow of its former self now, but on the other hand, as you mentioned, that means the distiller's trademark is still in use, which can lend some strength to the possibility of it being a good product. i.e. if the same distillers are distilling the same rum for 100 years, they must be doing something right.