Foursquare Rum Distillery 2005. Foursquare 2005 Completes my trio of reviews for this years “Exceptional Cask Series”. This is despite the fact the 2005 is actually the lowest numbered of this years release. Had the releases been released in order then I might have reviewed them in such a way. Instead we got them all on the same day in the UK. This left me to publish the reviews in any order I fancied. Which is exactly what I have done.

Foursquare 2005 is the follow-up rum from Foursquare’s 2004 – which was very well received (and is still obtainable). It got Rum of the Year for 2016 on this very site and I have enjoyed a good few more bottles since. Richard Seale has stuck with simplicity for this release – no regal sounding name he has just stuck with the year of distillation.
Which is fitting because this is on first glance a very simple rum. Aside from the ABV – a very meaty 59% it does not have the flourishes and “double (or even triple) maturation” most of the Exceptional Cask series have.

Presentation wise it comes in the now standard rounded stubby Foursquare bottle with very simple but very informative front and back labels. In a world where so many rums get fancier and fancier in presentation Foursquare are keeping things simple – yet these rums are still flying off the shelf. Gone are the screw caps of older Exceptional Cask bottlings and in with synthetic plastic topped stoppers. It is priced in the UK at £53.45 for your standard 70cl bottle.

Foursquare 2005 was distilled, funnily enough back in 2005. It was bottled in January 2018 and has benefitted from 12 years of tropical ageing in Barbados. Aged in ex-bourbon barrels it is a blend of Pot and Column Distilled rum. No sugar, no additives and definitely no marketing bullshit. Limited to 12,000 bottles worldwide – 6,000 in Europe and 6,000 in the US.

In the glass we are presented with an orange/golden brown rum with a very slight haze to it (only lightly filtered perhaps?). The nose is familiar. Lovely spicy bourbon casks – white pepper, lime zest and a touch of ginger and nutmeg. This is balanced by a really beautiful sweetness – vanilla and milk chocolate. You would never guess this was such a potent rum at 59% ABV. Tropical fruits are revealed on further nosing with hints of coconut and banana. Notes of chewy sugary toffee.

It will remind you of other Foursquare rums – could I pick the 2004 and 2005 apart from nosing? Possibly, but only in a side by side testing. If I was handed this and told it was the 2004 I would only quibble if I had just finished a 2004.

I tend to end up talking about balance a lot when I review Foursquare rums. Particularly those like the 2004 or Rum Sixty Six that do not have any second maturation. This is a rum blend of Pot and Column distillation which has been aged and carefully managed in the tropics for over 12 years. This shines through in the rums profile. The nose is pretty much perfect, as an example of Bajan rum. No hang on – it is perfect.

Rums like this should have been at the forefront of media attention for years now. Not the Zacapa’s or Diplomatico’s of this world. I should be able to go in a store and find rums like these as staples, essential items for any rum drinker. Now that may now be changing but it has taken time. Foursquare are now enjoying the fruits of their labour laid down 12-15 years ago. They’ve had to sit back and watch lazy idiot hacks tell the world Don Pancho is the greatest thing since sliced bread and that Ron Zacapa is pure rum nirvana.

Sipped this is a touch more spicy than the 2004. It is perhaps a notch or two clearer. more defined, more full if you like. The interaction between the rum and the cask is a joy to behold. The spicy entry delivers everything a good bourbon might alongside an extra layer of vanilla, stoned fruits, milky chocolate and some really nice notes of ginger and lemon peel.

It has an extra year on the 2004 and this shows. It’s slightly heavier overall – it has a little more oak especially around the finish which is very long very lively. Lovely zesty notes – lemon and limes, some pepper, ginger and just so much going on. There is even a touch of smokiness in the finish which adds an extra dimension.

As a sipper this takes some beating – I haven’t had to dilute it at all. Like the 2004 it is very easy to drink and is hugely complex and rewarding at the same time. Crystal clear delivery of every aspect of this rum.

Absolutely wonderful. An example of Bajan rum which has few peers. Those it has are its own brothers!

Rum does not get better.