Foursquare 2005 12-Year

...This bottle definitely would have gone home with me. High ABV meant it certainly packed a punch, but had a really smooth finish with a complex flavor profile. Definitely a nice sipper especially as the weather starts to cool down.

Zatiaľ sa mi páči v sérii FQ najviac. Krásne uhladený na to,že je v sudovej sile. Užíval som si tu plnosť,každý kúsok. Plný drevitych tov a zaroven cítiť čokoládu a mal som pocit,že slivky. Príjemná zadymenost, perfekt.

Foursquare 2005 Review
Number VI in the ECS series 2005 with 59% and a quantity of 12,000. A blend of pot and traditional column distillation. The rum is tropical matured in bourbon barrels for 12 years. The release was published in October 2017.

Smell: Very aromatic smell of caramel sweetness, dried fruits and herbs. Clearly one of the better bottlings. The flavors are beautifully balanced. There are also barrel aromas, tannins and vanilla.
Bourbon flavors are also easily noticeable. A nice, if not a very complex smell.

Taste: The rum starts with tannins, wood varnish and caramel sweetness. It is slightly bitter at the beginning, which gets better after several sips. I still notice dried fruit before it gets dry in the middle. The barrel aromas emerge, with oak and vanilla. There is a nice caramel sweetness over everything.
The finish is long and spicy with barrel aromas, vanilla and dried fruits.

Aftertaste: caramel sweetness, oak, herbs and dried fruits. The mouth feel remains dry.

This is a very good ECS release, unfortunately it is not as complex as e.g. the Sassafras but still pretty good. The somewhat stronger aromas such as leather are missing. The tannins are quite present, but the balance is still pretty good.

Overall rating: 88 points

Sweetness: 2/5
Fruit: 3.5 / 5
Spie: 3/5
Complexity: 3.5 / 5
Value (89 €): 4/5

Beautiful hints of coconut and banana, spicy white pepper, ginger, and nutmeg. Has a balanced sweetness with medium legs. Great sipper but its too hot fot me. I needed to water it down with ice. If you dont like bourbon, this isnt for you. Most foursquare rums have a distinctive bourbon influence.

Чтобы раскрыть аромат, нужно дать определённое время подышать. Достаточно крепкий (64.4%), но во вкусе не настолько крепкий, как указано на этикетке. Мало сладкий. По впечатлению выдержанный менее 12 лет, возможно из-за недостаточно длительного послевкусия

taste - 10/10
smell - 10/10
sweetness - 7.5/10
price/value rating - 8.5/10

On first touch strong bite in the mouth felt like cinnamon. In mouth it feels full and woody.
Finish is long sweet with vanilla and hints of smoke.

Feels tight somehow. Has a good balance of sweetness and oak, and it has enough body to handle the high ABV well. Clearly an intense rum, but also not spectacular enough to warrant the hype I've read about

What a unique character. The nose is big in apricot as if you opened a fresh bottle of Fanta. It is a mystery how thing like this can exist and without any additives. For experienced drinker though, 59 abv is serious.

The smell is clean, and the mouth feels strong in fat. The smell is full of caramel, vanilla, fruit. Even the original barrel strength is very smooth to drink, the finish is smooth and clean, and it is more elegant after adding water. What impressed me the most was the sudden burst of thick creamy vanilla after 5 seconds of swallowing. It was very pleasant and worth trying.