R.L. Seale 10 Year Old Rum

The owners of Foursquare Distillery, the Seale family, can trace its roots on Barbados back to the 1650s, and can reference five generations of rum-making expertise dating back to 1820. The establishment of the Foursquare brand, however, came much later. While the family could lay claim to one of Barbados' oldest trading houses, Reginald Leon Seale was prohibited, like other traders, from selling rum directly to consumers under the Barbados Excise Law. His method around this issue was to establish a distribution business in Bridgetown in the early 1900s - and this was the birth of the R. L. Seale brand.

Seale was not the only trader who took this course of action, but he was one of the very few successful ones. This prosperity provided the opportunity for expansion, and from 1962 to 1993, the rum portfolios of ESA Field and Alleyne Arthur, including Old Brigand, Taylor's Falernum and Doorly's were acquired. In order for the multiple brands to be effectively consolidated, a decision was made that ESA Field and Old Brigand would focus on the local market, where they had always done well, while Doorly's would become an export brand

This was the state of affairs until 1995 when the company, then led by Sir David Seale, gambled on the purchase of a sugar factory whose oldest building dates back to 1636 and was mostly decrepit. His intuition paid off, however, and that site became Foursquare Distillery, Now, it stands as one of the most efficient and modern rum distilleries around, complete with a state-of-the-art bottling plant on site. The distillery has a three-column vacuum still it uses for lighter rums and a modern pot still for heavier rums, which are always distilled from fermented molasses in small batches (usually 112 barrels) and tropically aged. Its rums are matured in small American white oak ex-Bourbon casks in huge open-sided warehouses, most of which are sourced from an unnamed (but famous) distillery in Lynchburg, Tennessee.

Already an impressive and rising force in the rum world, it would seem that Foursquare is all set to be at forefront of rum production in the foreseeable future, after the brand capped off a fine year when it was named Rum Producer of the Year at the prestigious International Spirits Challenge 2017.

The R.L. Seale 10yo is a terrific flagship rum aged for 10 years in ex-American whisky casks before bottling.

Nose: Spicy cooked red apple with vanilla, raw pastry, thyme and old oak wardrobe.

Taste: Slightly sweet, warm spicy (cinnamon, nutmeg) cidery roasted apple and caramel.

Finish: Woody toffee apple, creamy vanilla and milk chocolate with lingering spice.

Nolan - From the Spotlight on the Grape and Cane Spirits of the America’s Blog

It would be silly not to start a rum journey in the “birthplace of rum”. This is Barbados, derived from the Portuguese, “os Barbados” meaning, "the bearded ones". The island is thought to be named after either the now extinct native Kalinago Carib people who were allegedly bearded, or perhaps after the hanging roots of the native bearded fig tree.

While the title of “the birthplace of rum” depends on some vague sources, with the true birthplace of rum more likely in somewhere such as Brazil, it is without doubt, that Barbados produces some of the finest rums on the planet. Foursquare distillery, who produce the R.L. Seale 10yo, is the most highly awarded rum distillery in the world, and this is my go-to offering by them.

R.L. Seale is what is known as a “single blended rum”, that is a rum which is blended from both lighter column and heavier pot still rums, all of which are distilled at the same distillery. The raw material used at foursquare is molasses, with the rum aged solely in ex-bourbon casks. Ex-bourbon casks are the most plentiful on the market, as bourbons must be aged in brand new American white oak barrels.

Broadly speaking, the Barbados rum style is all about balance. They should be dry, but with a fruity richness and they should have a natural spiciness to them. For me, this R.L. Seale 10yo is the benchmark Barbados rum, against which I judge all others...although the bent bottle neck does make you feel a little tiddly before you’ve even had a sip! Foursquare’s rums are bottled without any added sugar with owner, Richard Seale, being very vocal to this point.

Here are the tasting notes directly from them…”old oak wardrobe” is an interesting one:

The nose is spicy with cooked red apple with vanilla, raw pastry, thyme and old oak wardrobe. The palate is slightly sweet, warm & spicy (cinnamon, nutmeg) cidery roasted apple and caramel. Woody toffee apple on the finish, creamy vanilla and milk chocolate with lingering spice.