Jamaica Cove Black Ginger Rum

Foursquare Rum Distillery Diadem. For once, I am actually familiar with a term being used on one of these fancy named Foursquare bottlings. We’ll get round to that shortly.

A Diadem is actually a jewelled headband worn as a sign of sovereignty. In other words it something the Queen might put on, when she can’t be arsed with the full faff on, of sticking one of her crowns upon the Royal bonce. Or something like that.

In all honesty I didn’t know that but I did recognise Diadem. After a while, I worked it out that it was one of the offices in Preston that I had to visit on a regular basis – Diadem House, when Tax Credits (no booing please) were being set up around 2002. It was quite a modern office and is now no longer occupied by HMRC. There was a KFC just round the corner…..

Anyway, my Civil Service career has little bearing on this offering (though it might partly explain why I drink so much) from Foursquare Rum Distillery. Although this rum comes in a bottle very similar in style, to the Exceptional Cask Series – it is not part of the series. Instead it is a Private Cask Selection bottling. Picked by The Whisky Exchange. As a result it is a retail exclusive to them. I am not sure who decided to give it such a regal name – pretty much calling it the “Jewel in the Crown”. I suspect it may have come from the The Whisky Exchange side.

This is the second exclusive bottling for The Whisky Exchange following on from the excellent (though quite divisive) Hereditas. I throughly enjoyed that though not everyone I’ve spoken to, was quite so keen.

Foursquare Rum Distillery Diadem is a Single Blended Rum. So it is a blend of Pot and Column Distilled Rum from one distillery – Foursquare, obviously. It has been aged for 12 years. The rums have been aged in a combination of ex-bourbon and ex-madeira casks. It is distilled, matured and bottled at Foursquare Distillery and presented at 60% ABV. There were just over 2000 bottles available on release.

It retails at £84.95 for a 70cl bottle exclusively from The Whisky Exchange. At least until the flippers get their mitts on it anyway and its on the Secondary market. The bottle also handily tells (or warns) me that this bottle has 42 units of alcohol. I should drink no more than 14 units per week. You’ve got to hand it to the UK’s Chief Medical Officers. They are nothing if not optimistic……….

Presentation wise we get the now familiar stubby rounded bottle with the Foursquare Rum Distillery “medal” on a ribbon around the neck. It is sealed by a synthetic cork which Foursquare now use following so many complaints around the wooden corks disintegrating. The only differences in presentation is that the “Rum Distillery” after Foursquare has been retained on these Private Cask Selection bottlings and it would appear that some tasting notes have been introduced on the back label.  I suspect they will be the work of The Whisky Exchange but I could be wrong. Their listing of this I think confirms my suspicions………they have two sets of tasting notes.

So I think we can safely move onto the fun part now, as I have told you everything I know about this rum and I haven’t even mentioned Richard Seale. That must be a first for a Foursquare Rum review.

In the glass we have a dark brown liquid with an orange hue. It’s an impressive colour considering no E150 has been added, nor has anything else. Non chill filtered as well so don’t go crying online in the Rum Groups if your rum goes a bit cloudy, you uneducated fanny.

The nose immediately reveals itself to be that of a rum at Cask Strength. I’ve had a fair few Foursquare rums, from the their “standard” range recently. Doorly’s XO and R.L Seales 10 Year Old. Both these rums are below 50% ABV and the size of the nose is immediately much different. This is much “bigger” – richer and oiler with more spiciness.

It’s full bodied with lots of vanilla and baking spices. Blackberries and some more tart Redcurrants. It’s rich and fruity but its balanced by some heat – ginger, a touch of cinnamon and some white pepper.

Deeper nosing reveals some concentrated Pineapple juice and some Pear Drops (boiled sweets). There is some milk chocolate and some Raspberry tart.

I’ll compare this to Hereditas briefly and I have to say the Madeira influence is much less pronounced then the Sherry notes in Hereditas. This isn’t as Madeira heavy as Hereditas was in terms of the Sherry. Which might win round people who were disappointed by Hereditas.

To be honest when it comes to Foursquare, I just like the constant variety and the consistent high quality of the rum. It’s all from the same tree but each branch is just a little bit different. Nothing so far has disappointed me in terms of either the Exceptional Cask Series or these Private Cask Selection’s.

If we hadn’t had so many different releases I probably would have bought more of whatever was available. I always like to have some Foursquare or Real McCoy available. A rum collection without a Foursquare Rum cannot really call itself a rum collection. I know some rum “extremists” will disagree with this. More fool them is all I can say.

As a sipper, this is another bottle which I fear will not be around for very long. I always find Foursquare to be very drinkable. Even the higher ABV doesn’t really lead to me drinking less. Which in some way probably isn’t a good thing! Never mind….

The initial entry has a slightly bitter-sweet note and quite a lot of fiery oak and some ginger and black pepper spices. The sweetness initially is quite short with a slightly tart note of Gooseberries.

However it doesn’t take long to adapt to Foursquare Rum Distillery Diadem and 2 or 3 sips in you start to notice the sweeter notes in this rum and the added complexity of the Madeira cask. The inital entry is both and sweet and fiery at the same time. Blackcurrants and juicy Raisins mixed with a fiery chilli like heat.

The more you sip the softer the rum becomes with more notes of pineapple, vanilla ice cream and coconut putting in an appearance. There is a rich fortified wine like note and a strong note of Red Grapes on the mid palate but its not allowed to take over by the complex oak spices coming from the maturation.

Finish wise it is a nice length but it does seem to dry out a little quicker than I would have liked. I would have preferred more of the fruit to remain onto the finish. That said you still get a wonderful integration of spices and a great balance of heat which is very enjoyable and quite long lasting.

I only really judge Foursquare against Foursquare now – there is no real point doing anything else. That said I no longer have access to every ECS or Private Cask Selection available to cross reference and try a side by side tasting every time I get a new Foursquare bottling.

From memory I know which rums have really stood out and I know which rums have been “only” just between Very Good and Excellent in my scoring.

Foursquare Rum Distillery Diadem, might not be one of my top five Foursquare rums but it would likely still rank pretty highly in any top 100 I might one day produce. It’s a great rum. It would certainly be the Jewel in the Crown for a lot of other distilleries!