Foursquare The Duchess 18 Years Old Cask 18 56.9% 2001

Brennerei	Foursquare
Abfüller	The Duchess
Serie	TROPICAL HUMMINGBIRD SERIES
Abgefüllt für	X
Destillationsdatum	2001
Abfülldatum	2019
Land	Barbados
Region	St.Philip
Alter	18
Cask Type	Bourbon Barrel
Fassnummer	18
Alcohol percentage	56.9
Inhalt	0,70
Zustand	Perfekt
Label	Perfekt
Vorrat	0

Professionelle Bewertungen

Serge Valentin (87)

I suppose this is the usual blend of ex-column and ex-pot-still Foursquare (blended at birth) the proportions of which are being guarded by half a dozen Dobermans that are only fed once a week. Colour: gold. Nose: coffee, caraway, liquorice, wormwood (absinth), then crushed ripe bananas and wee whiffs of garden bonfire. Well, as I remember them since it’s been streng verboten to do garden bonfires for ages now. With water: gets tighter and purer yet. Garden bonfire, really, also chocolate, figs and tobacco. Orange blossom. Pretty elegant. Mouth (neat): very Foursquare, with oranges and fudge, some flavoursome herbs, some plain cane juice, and touches of muscovado sugar – or any brown sugar that would be more appropriate in this context. With water: it’s rather light-bodied, as if it was mainly ex-column, but these notes of sugarcane and fudge/popcorn just work. Finish: medium, sweeter, with orange and honey candies. Light molasses ‘honey’. Comments: it’s a fairly lighter Foursquare that I find very elegant.

Gal Granov (90)

Nose: Oodles of vanilla, acetone, and wood, followed by lovely fruit (berries), and coconut shreds, pencil shavings, and a lot of spices. old school candy and more sweet spiced wood. very nice indeed. hints of tropical fruit with icing sugar and melon.


Palate: Intense and sweet with touches of tobacco and spices, the wood is in the front, and balancing it all very nicely – 2nd wave of sensation reveals tropical fruit – kiwi, melon, mango – the works. There’s also some chocolate and leather in addition to maple sweetness and wood spice along with more berries.


Finish: vanilla sweetness, more oak, and fruit,

Conclusion: This is just lovely! what a treat, and what a fab rum to just sip and enjoy. It’s easy to reach out and opt for another dram, and another. Well done! I need a bottle or two of this. Surely.

Words of Whisky (88)

Yet another rum from The Duchess, which is a series from Best of Wines in Bussum, The Netherlands. They’ve been bottling some whisky, but lately it is mostly rum that’s coming from their stables.

In this case there are two new releases of which I am now reviewing the first one. The second is pending drinking and will be written about shortly. For these two releases they are using a new label, after the flowers they’re now releasing a series of hummingbirds. I know there’s more coming out shortly of which I had a wee sip at the Hielander Whisky Festival last February.

Anyway, Foursquare. It still reminds me of some app that was popular a decade ago for tagging locations (if I’m not mistaken). I never used it but for a year or so it was a thing on Twitter.

Anyway, an 18 year old, which is nice in itself. From a bourbon barrel, which I also like. At cask strength, but not too ridiculously strong. All good there. Let’s see what this brings us.

Sniff:
Heavy, and sugary rum. Fairly straight forward on the nose. A bit of leather, copper polish, custard and baked cheesecake. There’s a fruitiness as well, blueberries.

Sip:
The palate is pretty sharp, but not overly so. Sweetness, oak, blueberry cheesecake, but also some feinty notes like copper polish, and leather.

Swallow:
The finish is more ‘generic’ I think. More sugary sweetness, some vanilla and oak. The palate is nicely continued.

Generic might sound negative, but in this case it’s just to indicate that it’s more typically rum-like, with more focus on the sugary / syrupy parts, and slightly less so on, in this case, the blueberry cheesecake.

Talking about that blueberry cheesecake. I keep getting it, initially I though I was going crazy. However, according to myself, I am not. And I love it. It’s a very unique thing that I’ve not gotten before.

BOW (90)

Courtesy of Rumrevelations.com


First thing running up my nose is acetone followed by wood, quite a lot of wood. It’s got tons of spices, coconut, marzipan, vanilla and pencil shavings. Compared to the 13 it’s more pungent and pronounced. It pulls you in, you really want to start drinking this right away. The 13 brings less of this kind of excitement.



Taste


Tobacco!!! Yum! There is a sweetness on the tip of my tongue, followed by a lot of inensity. It really coats your entire mouth with ruminess. Exactly what I’m looking for. I’m finding spicy wood, leather and dark chocolate. This is delicious. The long finish is intense and close to the top of my wood acceptance level.



Conclusion


The 13 year is a pleasant and easy going rum, however I prefer the more complex and heavier 18…..by a mile. Comparing these two, I do wonder what the 18’s cask would have been like at 16 years old. A tad less wood would have made it even better for my liking. Despite that, I love this rum.


To me this is a Foursquare master piece that can go toe to toe with some of the best distillery bottlings and is a great example why European ageing shouldn’t be dismissed as one of the tools to create delicious rum.


I just bought a bottle. So should you, as there are only 205 out there. Keep ‘m coming Nils!