Habitation Velier Foursquare Barbados 2013 2yr 64%

"The nose is a little too alcoholic, with pineapple, raisins, vegetal and pastry notes. On the palate, the alcohol attacks strongly, then the other aromas emerge: tropical fruit, menthol, licorice. Short finish, but this rum is only two years old, with a certain buttery sweetness. A rum that lacks complexity and, above all, depth."

"On the palate, one notices its young age. The alcohol comes across quite biting here. But one recognizes typical Foursquare notes. On the palate then still quite biting. But I would have blindly estimated it significantly older than 2 years. With a few drops of water, the alcoholic note is still there on the nose, but on the palate the bottling becomes more balanced and develops more flavors. But the bottom line is that the release is too alcoholic and unbalanced for me."

"Still relatively new and not classic Foursquare for me."

"A very young Foursquare at the crossroads between alcohol and the acquisition of its typical aromas. On the nose, however, it is very shy, with oak, dried fruit, nuts and a few spices forming the main olfactory elements. It does, however, show a touch of alcohol at first sight. The attack on the palate is powerful. The alcohol makes itself felt, stinging the palate and biting the tongue. Razor-sharp, the rum reveals only a few dark, spicy, woody and empyreumatic notes. It doesn't reveal much, and doesn't necessarily want to after aeration. The finish is short and uninteresting, as it is equally strong, rough and closed to tasting. A difficult rum to approach on all levels. Assuming that the initial idea was to show that a young rum could have character, this is a fact, but there's clearly a casting error here, as the rum is aggressive and unbalanced."

"The nose is very expressive, it's heavy in aroma ! No tongs, it's direct: vanilla, raisins, tropical fruits, olives ... all sweetened with marzipan! For a 2 years old, it's quite crazy as a nose. In the mouth, it is rum, real, intense. We feel that it is cruelly young, the alcohol is very present. It is mainly woody-chocolate. It is very creamy in the mouth. The finish is moderately long on the woodiness with a little disturbing final astringency. It's young, it's punchy, it's powerful, it's surprising ... it's nice to taste in a lineup."

"A rather young, light rum. Decent rum, but a rather bitter aftertaste. Could be given to the 64% ABV. In the nose I found some fruit and spicyness, and I got notes of tropical fruits, oak and hints of spices"

"Interesting to know how the pure pot still distillate tastes after 2 years, but nothing more. The palate already has a few rough edges (of the sort it does not need) too much for a HV bottling. Or even at all."

"A lovely Foursquare expression that indexes on cask-driven baking spice. It’s pretty impressive that a 100% pot still rum hews this close to the classic foursquare profile. Adjacent to a good heavyweight ECS release, but with a touch of tropical fruit, and very much turned up to eleven."