Foursquare 2009 Barbados cask strength 60% vol. 0,7l ecs Rum

Nose:  vanilla, tropical fruits. Raisins, pineapple, white pepper, wood.

Palate: Vanilla, spicy notes of cinnamon and ginger, fresh mango, a hint of anise, and the aromas of ripe tropical fruits that are so characteristic of Foursquare.

Finish : soft, long-lasting, fruit notes, white pepper.

Foursquare Distillery, owned by the Seale family, can trace its roots in Barbados back to the 1650s and looks back on five generations of rum production. However, the Foursquare brand itself was founded much later. While the family could lay claim to one of Barbados's oldest trading houses, Reginald Leon Seale, like other merchants, was prohibited by the Barbados consumer law from selling rum directly to consumers. His way around this was to establish a distribution company in Bridgetown in the early 1900s - and that was the birth of the R. L. Seale brand. R. L. Seale was not the only merchant to adopt this approach, but he was one of the few successful ones. This prosperity created the opportunity for expansion, and from 1962 to 1993, the rum portfolios of ESA Field and Alleyne Arthur were acquired, including Old Brigand, Taylor's Falernum, and Doorly's. In order to consolidate the various brands effectively, it was decided that ESA Field and Old Brigand would focus on the local market, where they had always performed well, while Doorly's would become an export brand.

This remained the case until 1995, when the company, under the leadership of Sir David Seale at the time, decided to purchase a sugar factory whose oldest building dates back to 1636 and had largely fallen into disrepair. However, his intuition paid off, and this site became Foursquare Distillery. Today, it is regarded as one of the most efficient and modern rum distilleries of all, complete with a state-of-the-art bottling facility on site. The distillery has a three-column still, which it uses for lighter rums, and a modern pot still, which is used for heavier rums. Distillation is done from fermented molasses in small batches (usually 112 barrels) and then aged tropically. The rums are matured in small American white oak ex-bourbon casks in huge open warehouses, most of which come from an unnamed (but famous) distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee.