The Real McCoy Aged 10 Years Limited Edition Rum. It’s proving quite dificult trying to keep pace with the output from the Foursquare Rum Distillery. Not content with various re-vamped releases from their existing portfolio such as higher ABV offerings of R L Seale’s, Doorly’s 3 Year Old and Doorly’s XO. Foursquare have also added further aged Doorly’s at 12 and 14 Years old and numerous (we are now up to release number 12) Exceptional Cask Series rums in the past 5 years alone.

So you might have thought that their collaboration with Bailey Pryor and The Real McCoy brand might have led to a more static brand. That has definitely not been the mistake as the ABV has been increased on these offerings as well. A couple of Limited Edition rums have also been released.

Today we have a 10 Year Old rum, which proved fairly difficult to source over here in the UK. Either we didn’t get many of these over here or I just completely took my eye of the ball when they were released. I finally found a bottle online at The Whisky Exchange. I paid a very exact £66.25 for my 46% ABV 70cl bottle.

The Real McCoy Aged 10 Years Limited Edition Rum is presented in the standard stubby style bottle used by all The Real McCoy rums. It has a bulbous neck. The Real McCoy rums contain a lot of information on their labels. They are pretty much transparent. So we learn that this is a Single Blended Rum (Blended Pot and Column distilled rum from a single distillery). My bottle dated 2017, is one of 3000.

It is also worth noting that the rear label of this rum notes that the blend of rums is aged seperately for 12 years in American Bourbon barrels and 10 years in Virgin Oak. So the age statement notes the minimum age of the rum in this bottle. Do we expect anything less from Mr Seale?

The Real McCoy rums have been aged in heavily charred oak cask, to perhaps. differentiate them from the official Foursquare bottlings. It is also noted that this blend of rums has a high ratio of Copper Pot Still distillate. So we should be in for a pretty flavourful blend.

I can’t think of anything else to add at this stage, so I think I will pour myself a glass and see how I find this.

In the glass we have a deep dark brown liquid almost mahoghany. With a orange hue.

Nosing, I immediately notice are more woody profile. Definite wafts of freshly cut timber (says he who has never chopped a piece of wood in his life). Further nosing reveals dark chocolate, intense cacao and some stewed breakfast tea. Barrel char is evident on the nose as well.

This is not a particularly sweet nose but if you go deep enough you’ll find some dark fruits – plums, redcurrants. Surprisingly there is little by way of vanilla, coconut and banana. Still it is quite a nice nose just a bit “woodier” than usual.

Sipped, I’m finding it very heavy on the wood. The first couple of sips are a bit of a challenge and I find them quite bitter and just a bit too heavy on the char and wood. My palate, however seems to recover from the initial woody onslaught.

A little anyway. I first tried a rum aged in Vigin Oak at London Rumfest in 2018. It was from Worthy Park. A number of people were raving about it. I just didn’t like the overall balance, it was just too woody.

This isn’t as bad, as I recall the Worthy Park offering but it is still more bitter, more charred and more woody than I enjoy. Some of the balance and softness I enjoy with Foursquare rum has been lost a little with this.

It does calm a glass or two in but it’s still not my favourite Foursquare. The initial bitter, cacao heavy, charred entry does give way to a little milk chocolate sweetness on the mid palate. Unfortunately this quickly switches back to the more charred woody influence.

Rather than improve this rum, I think the 10 Year Virgin Oak blend is actually drying the overall profile out. It’s thrown it out of sync. I’m not getting the vanilla, toffee,banana and coconut notes I enjoy in other aged Foursquare/The Real McCoy releases. This is bone dry and I’ve really struggled with it.

There are of course far worse rums around than this but (and in a perverse way I’m kind of glad, as it might show some of my doubters that Foursquare don’t always get an easy ride) I won’t be handing out any plaudits for this Foursquare offering.

Finish wise, it’s got a good length to it but it seems to dry up and leave behind only woody notes. I didn’t get a great deal of complex spices or much else unfortunately.

I don’t think Virgin Oak is the way forward for me. I’ll be honest had I tried a sample of this, I doubt very much I would have bought the bottle.

A very rare disappointment. This just did not work for me. I would definitely plump for the 12 Year Old given a choice.