Foursquare The Real McCoy 5 Years

The Real McCoy takes Barbados distillate from Foursquare, the island's most respected distillery, and the name nods to Bill McCoy, the Prohibition-era rum runner known for selling spirits straight. That honesty suits Foursquare's strict no-additives stance, and this five year old is bottled at 46 percent without any sugar or colour.

The nose shows fruit, vanilla, leather and a dry edge, while the palate brings vanilla, oak, wood and black pepper. The finish runs hot and spicy with honey over wood. Distilled from molasses on a column still and matured in ex-bourbon oak, it is dry and additive-free, a young but well-built Barbados rum. Tasters rate it among the better rums at its age and strength, the spice and oak giving it more structure than its years suggest. A clean, characterful entry into the Foursquare style that earns its place neat or in a cocktail.