Foursquare Touchstone 14 Year Old Single Blended Barbados Rum

Foursquare's single blended rum from St. Philip, Barbados, brings together pot and column distillate under one roof, and this fourteen-year-old expression shows what patience in the tropics does to a spirit. Time moves quickly in that heat, and the rum has come out concentrated rather than merely old.

Tropical fruit and orange lead, bright enough to cut through the weight behind them. Underneath sits caramel and dried fruit, thick and a little sticky, with vanilla threaded through. Baking spice and oak arrive late and stay a while. At 122 proof it is a full-bodied pour, and being cask strength and additive free, everything you taste came from the barrel rather than a bottling line.

Fourteen years across ex-bourbon and ex-Cognac casks account for the range here, the bourbon wood giving sweetness and the Cognac wood a darker, fruitier edge. A 750 mL bottle that drinks well neat, though a few drops open it up considerably.