Precious Liquors Foursquare Foursquare (Bottled for VERSUS) 2006

Bottled by Precious Liquors for VERSUS, this is a 2006 vintage Foursquare aged seventeen years as a single cask. Foursquare is the critics' darling of Barbados under Richard Seale, double-retort pot blended with twin-column Coffey and a strict no-additives stance. An independent single cask in this style offers a drier, more austere reading of the house than its sweeter-finished prestige releases.

Distilled from molasses on pot and column stills and matured in ex-bourbon oak, it keeps that clean integrity while leaning lean. The aroma carries coconut, caramel, oak and vanilla, the palate turns woody with coconut, vanilla and a sweet edge, and the finish stays roasted and woody with citrus over a balanced, faintly bitter close. The coconut-vanilla signature sits restrained here, with orange peel and spice giving it a drier, more serious shape. Blind it can hide its origin, an elegant and well-balanced Barbados single cask that carries its 58.1% with composure.