TCRL Foursquare 2012

This TCRL release is a 2012 vintage Foursquare aged six years, bottled by the Transcontinental Rum Line. Foursquare is the benchmark Barbados producer under Richard Seale, working a double-retort pot and twin-column Coffey with a strict no-additives stance. A younger independent bottling like this shows the distillery's spirit with a lighter touch of cask, a characterful look at the base before long oak takes over.

Distilled from molasses on pot and column stills and matured in ex-bourbon oak, it keeps the clean Foursquare DNA while staying bright. The aroma carries lemon, oak, vanilla and mandarin, the palate turns creamy with white chocolate, pepper and vanilla, and the finish brings white chocolate, honeycomb, honey and dried apricot. It reads as a lighter Foursquare, the cask presence modest and the fruit and spirit to the fore. Soft and easy at 46%, it leans on the quality of the distillate rather than heavy oak, a gentle and approachable Barbados pour.