Lloyd's Rum Syndicate N°6 - Foursquare 18yo

THE DISTILLERY

The story of the Foursquare distillery begins almost exactly a century ago on Barbados in 1926 when Reginald Leon Seale (R. L. Seale) established the R. L. Seale & Company. Mr. Seale started off his journey as a rum merchant blending and bottling all sorts of different rums from various distilleries.

Over the following decades, the  R. L. Seale brand became so successful that between 1962 and 1993 it acquired other Barbados rum brands such ESA Field, Alleyne Arthur (inc. Old Brigand), Taylors Falernum and Doorly's.

In 1995, Sir David Seale purchased an old sugar estate in the parish of St. Philip known as “Foursquare” and began the renovation which would become the Foursquare Distillery and Heritage Park. In 1996 the distillery was reopened by the Seale family after the renovation of the plantation with a state of the art bottling plant on site and the installation of environmentally friendly equipment, Foursquare has become one of the most modern distilleries not just in Barbados but the world.

Since then, the identity of Foursquare has been mostly determined by Richard Seale (Reginald’s great-grandson) who is the distillery’s owner and master blender. Richard has done more than anybody to develop the identity of Barbadian rum by mixing tradition with modernity. More specifically, Foursquare rums are known to use a mix of molasses and cane juice as opposed to sticking strictly to one or the other. Ditto for the distillation process which is carried out running part of the wash in a double-retort pot still run in a vacuum and the other part in a column still. The resulting spirit is then blended before being put in casks for aging.

Given Richard Seale’s love for technology, he had still parts fabricated in Scotland, Italy and Barbados to complete a somewhat unconventional setup of stainless steel and copper columns. Within this, he was able to produce a distillate between 94-95% alc./vol. using only 40 copper trays inside the rectifying column. Most distillers use the more common 75 trays to produce 96% alc./vol.

One of the reasons why we like Foursquare is that their ageing philosophy is rigorous. Rums are matured in tropical warehouses, mostly in ex-bourbon oak casks, with experimentation in secondary maturation in casks formerly used for sherry, Madeira, port, etc.

Foursquare has become celebrated globally, receiving top awards and being recognized for “spirits of integrity.” It is also one of the few remaining 100% Barbadian family-owned distilleries (both as a business and by production) of its kind.

THE RUM

This particular expression of Foursquare rum was aged in a bourbon barrel for 18 years before being bottled at cask strength (57.1%).

Nosing the rum will reveal notes of banana fritters, molasses, nutmeg and bourbon vanilla.

These notes are fully transferred to the palate upon tasting with a lovely mix of caramelized yellow fruits mixing with spices.

The finish is dry with the spices evolving into mature flowers.

If you cannot sip it while sitting on an armchair and gazing at the autumn waves while you reflect on the meaning of life, we think it would be a perfect pairing with vanilla-flavoured pannacotta or crème brûlée, not to mention pecan pie.