Background: I came across this yesterday, while browsing a brick-and-mortar shop. It was my first time seeing a Velier Foursquare in the flesh, and I was compelled enough to buy it there and then. This is probably the only tropically-aged Foursquare rum with 'heavy' column still distillate. Aged for 12 years.

Nose: a little closed, but that might be due to me being too used to the nose of a certain Hampden for the past few days; glue; charred wood; a dirty, oily note a la Caroni; apple strudel; strong, freshly brewed milk coffee from robusta coffee ground; dark chocolate; brown sugar; maple syrup; salted caramel; Chinese liquorice; anise; eucalyptus leaf; tobacco; fresh grape and grape hi-chew; we are approaching the archetypal cognac territory, with its rancio and whatnot; rubber balloons; a little tar and cigarette ash; here it again reminds me of Caroni.

Palate: the signature Foursquare butter-and-honey entry can be felt, this time much darker than usual, accompanied by black liquorice and dark chocolate; stewed apple; dried prune and raisin; mint; drying wood; Chinese liquorice.

Finish: medium in length; it gets grassy and minty, but with a woody heft, like an old Martinique rhum agricole; the honey comes back with a hint of brine, followed by vanilla, lots of vanilla.

Conclusion: Single Cask Rum insisted (and probably still insists) that Foursquare is overrated. That got me writing off the entire distillery for a while. It did not help that my first foray into Foursquare rum was the Zinfandel Cask ECS bottling, by which I was far from impressed. I am glad that I took a leap of faith again with the 2005 TCRL IB, and finally, this. Indeed, the Plenipotenziario is simple -- some call it ‘boring’ -- compared to a number of rums I have tried, but it does ‘boring’ really well.

Score (assuming a normal distribution with mean 50): 83/100

Image Courtesy of u/zoorado. 

u/zoorado