Valinch & Mallet Foursquare Single Blended Rum 2006

This is a 2006 vintage Foursquare bottled by Italy's Valinch & Mallet as a single blended rum, aged seventeen years from a single cask. Foursquare is the benchmark Barbados producer under Richard Seale, marrying double-retort pot still with twin-column Coffey under a strict no-additives ethos, the house that champions the single blended classification this release carries. A higher-proof, well-aged independent cask shows that DNA at its most composed.

Distilled from molasses on pot and column stills and matured in ex-bourbon oak, it keeps the clean Foursquare character with weight. The aroma carries coconut, spice, caramel and oak, the palate brings spice and both dark and fresh fruit over wood, and the finish stays coconut-rich and spicy with a roasted edge and light chocolate. The alcohol is finely integrated and the distinctive coconut-spice signature shows clearly, dry and characterful rather than sweet. Elegant and balanced, it holds its 56.8% with ease, a fine example of the aged Bajan style.