63: Behind the Scenes of The Fat Rum Pirate, One of Rum's Key Review Sites
This week, we sat down with Wes Burgin, the man behind the 800+ rum reviews at The Fat Rum Pirate. If you've ever searched for info about a particular rum online, odds are you've already come across many of Wes's reviews. It's one of the biggest resources out there for rum geeks and we had a blast diving into Wes's approach to reviewing, how the industry has evolved since he launched the site over eight years ago, and much more, including:
Guarding against your own biases when reviewing rum
Dealing with angry responses from brands that didn't get favorable reviews
How he's managed to review an average of 100+ rums per year over the last 8 years
Standouts (both good and bad) from all the rums he's reviewed
How far rum has come in terms of transparency (and how much further it has to go)
The current state of rum distilling in the United Kingdom
And more!
Plus, at the beginning, we also reveal the results of The Rumcast Fantasy Rum Draft from Episode 62 and crown our inaugural champion. If you missed out and still want to vote, head to Rumcast.com/Vote!
P.S. Did you know you can support The Rumcast on Patreon now and get bonus episodes, happy hours, and more? You can! Head to patreon.com/therumcast to check it out.