(Image Source: Foursquare, Culture Trip)

Barbados' Foursquare Distillery has announced a new expression "Raconteur" - a single blended rum of single and double maturation aged for 17 years.

Given the label design, characteristic of prior Foursquare bottlings, this appears to be bottled by Velier, the Italian importer.

According to Velier who has confirmed the new bottling, "The name of the new release is a tribute to two great rum “raconteurs”: Luca himself and the late Stephen Remsberg, a great collector who passed away last December."

It is stated on the label that the bottling will take place in January 2023, and will be bottled at barrel proof of 61% ABV, fully matured in the tropics.

For the single maturation, this would be 17 years in ex-Bourbon barrels, while the double maturation would be 5 years in ex-Bourbon and 12 years in ex-Oloroso.

While previous Velier Foursquare bottlings have seen ex-Sherry maturation, this seems to be the first time that fans will get to enjoy an expression from Foursquare with a specifically ex-Oloroso ageing.

This also marks the longest-aged release made with Velier till date, with chief of Foursquare Distillery, Richard Seale announcing that the direction of the distillery in the future will be one of older aged stocks using quality barrels.

“Last year we added a new pot still and we recently completed construction of two new ageing warehouses. We plan to produce more pot still rum and age it for longer periods.”

For this bottling, the molasses used comes from different countries and have been fermenting for 44 hours, with must previously fermented in a mother vat added.

A total of 4,800 bottles will be released, which is fairly in the middle mark of prior releases.

Kanpai!

88 Bamboo Editorial Team