Doorly's 14-Year

I finally managed to fetch myself this nice little treasure! Cost me a bit more (98 euros total pricing), but now that i am savoring the thing, it was actually well-worth it! The box is craftily designed and highly original. Color of the liquid is magnificent and eye-catching. The smell is deep, clean and subtle, not strong, but very pleasing nonetheless, refined and sophisticated. The texture feels extremely smooth, velvety, without harshness, despite the high alcohol percentage. It goes down merrily, simply feels great to drink! Warms your throat inside out and while exhaling, a unique feeling of euphoria overcomes you, momentarily dominating your senses! The lingering aftertaste is outstanding and remains for quite some time post your sip, filling your mouth with an unparalleled, blissful sensation! This is a real winner and absolutely fabulous! Highly recommended! Special thanks are in order, to the people who insisted for me to buy this one first, before the other rums in my list!!!

The bottle is very attractive, the saturated colors of the parrot motif invoke the atmosphere of tropical nature, Caribbean, warm weather and bright sun. The shape of the bottle is old-school, squat, curvy, topped with artificial cork embedded in plastic (no problem for me, there is not enough genuine cork for all the booze in the world).

The aroma originally is very muted, distant, dominated by a focused sweet note - candied apples, marmalade, canned pumpkin, after adding a bit of water (the rum is bottled at 48 percent), the aroma slowly unfolds with more acrid, acidic notes of soft wood.

On the palate, the entry is surprisingly, but delicately sweet (knowing Mr. Seale's production and attitude towards additives, I expect an austere, bone dry experience), but now, sweetness continues to develop along the toffee, milky, caramel lines towards a slightly bitter, woody finish, but much less bitter than one would expect after full 14 years of tropical aging. You will find no traces of those "teabags left in too long" ultra bitter tones of low quality rums, these are no tired casks with just bitter tannins left after years and years of abuse, but obviously an expertly selected vessels that imparted rather delicious gifts during their contact with the distillate.

The finish is warming, long, delicate, only slightly astringent and bitter, but almost feminine and soft in intensity.

Overall, this rum is a rather pleasant surprise, and after clicking between 9 and 10, back and forth, yes, I am giving it 10 finally - I usually give 10 only to rums that brings something original to the table, which IMO is not the case here, but this rum is exceptionally well-made, and I have to respect that.

Jolly well done!

In the last year, I’ve been chasing Foursquare ECS bottles because to me they define what rum should be. Crisp, additive free and higher ABV than your more run of the mill offerings.

However, the ECS chase can be frustrating and expensive.

Doorly’s 14 ticks all the boxes. Pure, crisp and delicious and most importantly, available as a standard offering from Foursquare.

Compared to the ECS offerings, the doorly’s is a standard offering with aging only in oak casks. That being said, the rum is flavorful and spicy. The oak is strong but not overly so and the burn after a sip let’s you know it was there.

Brown sugar, honey and spice describe this rum well with some dried fruit overtones.

Overall, an excellent offering from Foursquare and one that will be on my shelf from now on!

I saw this one in my local Total Wine listings and it had been a long time since I had it. Well, it was actually The Real McCoy 14 Year that I had and rated that one as a 7. I was reluctant to plunk down $52 US for this Doorly's version of the 14 Year rum from Foursquare. All that I have been buying from Doorly's is their XO or their 8 Year, whichever is available when I arrive in the store. I had been burned many times by the excessive bourbon notes on most of the Fourquare ECS rums, and the Doorly's 12 Year had this same problem for me.

So I bought just one bottle when I arrived to the store. When I got it home, I was pleasantly surprised to find no damn bourbon notes. Yes, some wood notes are there, but not enough to be repulsive to me. Only one other Bajan rum appeals to me more, which is the Mount Gay 1703 Master Select at three times the price. I will take this bargain from Foursquare any day over their ECS rums!!! A well deserved 9 rating from me!

A few days later, I went back to that store and bought 3 more bottles. Not to be a selfish jerk, I left a couple of bottles on the shelf for others to enjoy. However, something tells me that this one will not be in limited production.

Doorly's 12 year is one of my favourite rums and i was hoping this would be as good or even better. I was not disappointed! This actually tastes even slightly better than the 12 year and still has a wonderful finish that seems to last throughout. Overall this is a fantastic rum and i look forward to buying a bottle.

It's an incredibly smooth rum, the taste reminds me a bit of Diplomatico but it's more complex. A bit oaky, slight vanilla and banana taste and cane sugar. I feel like 8/10 is appropriate, there is a little something missing to make it perfect.

Couldn't get a bottle of Sovereignty or Isonomy, so decided to give this a whirl.
Immediately struck by how different to the 12 this is. Smell brings a rich complexity that I don't find in the younger brother. There's also something subtly marmalade like in there too.
Taste has all that, with discrete layers to it too. Its pretty sweet like the 12, but whereas the 12 is brown sugar all the way, this is nuanced and complex as well as rich, with a bit of spice, a pretty subtle burn and a long rich finish.

It doesn't have quite the highs of an ECS, and the lower proof is noticeable, but it's a really satisfying rum all the same. At £62 a bottle it's going to be a now and again purchase, but for all those occasions I can't get a new ECS release, I don't think I'm going to be disappointed.

the best i ve tried so far, in a rum the aroma/taste i appreciate the most is fruitiness and this one have it at maximum, more than mount gay (their rums where my preferred, no more), nose some alcohol burn (of course, it s warming at 48% ABV) but after this some vanilla and tons of tropical fruits, in the mouth tropical fruits are so present, yes, some wood and spices attenuate the (natural) sweetness and give some complexity, but fruits are so predominant ...
if we look the price is also good for this stuff, it costed like a dictador 20 (that is ok but not at that level if we look taste and ABV) or half than a millionario XO (sugar bomb very over rated)
this one at the end of the touristic season (end october/start november) i ll buy a bottle for each of my waiters to celebrate another good season !
when i hear people speaking of bajan rums being the best, i confirm that they really are the cream of the cream of rum (and this one is a true bajan with a pedigree), people who like sweetened rum please don t drink this just to rate it bad !
PS checked again and the price was so good because i ve got a discount, exactly 25% (the VAT tax in Croatia), but it s still ok for that level of quality ....

My fourth sampling of Doorly’s rum tonight, this time with Doorly’s 14 year old rum. I kept this one for the end so that I could compare it to the previous three. Well it was beyond my expectations. This rum is naturally sweet and so smooth. While the ABV is not as high as the Foursquare ESC series it is, in my humble opinion of the same quality. So good. Now I have to get my hands on the 14 & 8 year rums.

Zajímavý chuťově i vůní. Nevím jak jej přesně charakterizovat, chutná mi docela dost, ale přece jen XO 40% je pro mne jemnější a chutnější. Snad se to obrátí a tento mi bude chutnat více.