Foursquare Exceptional Cask Selection XVI Shibboleth 2005 16yr 56%

"An elegant and intense Foursquare, a beautiful selection"

"I'm always a bit skeptical about the 4 corners, they're not really my thing. They are mostly too well-behaved and too pleasing to me, good beginners with decent quality but always very interchangeable. Let's see...Nose: nice fruity-spicy, I immediately sweet cream toffee with a slight tobacco-smoke note. Behind that a mix of fruits with vanilla that reminds me of mealy sweet cherimoya (pear, banana, strawberry, apricot). Burnt sugar and some wood round things out. Very pleasing.Palate: fruity-woody, with decent coconut. Good then comes apricot and somehow quince. I also find tobacco here and then something green and herbal towards saffron. And for molasses makes you noticeable.Not bad, but yet so similar to all the others."

"Surprisingly mild - alcohol well integrated, plus a fruit note rather unusual for Foursquare. No revolution in taste, but a good representative. If with increasing age actually further flavors in the known spectrum, one can hopefully look forward to further releases of similar (tropical) maturity. I like it well."

"Shelf"

"On the nose, the 1 is more pastry-like. Orange and damp wood. Then the solvent side comes in. On the palate, it's much rounder, much more direct, with pastry / mocha / vanilla. It takes up the whole mouth and is as round as it should be, with superbly well-integrated alcohol. The finish is greedy, medium-long, with wood coming through and becoming bitter."

"On the nose, vanilla caramel alternates with spicy wood. Sometimes a hint of fruit or chocolate shines through, but the fruit is more discreet compared to the FS 2008. Very tasty profile! Rather less spicy in the mouth, despite 56%. Still naturally spicy, woody, chocolaty, fruity. Now far too expensive, a very good rum anyway."

"Reminiscent of all vintage bottling, only that this is rounder and more intense. The 16 years stand him well. Longer, however, it should not be. Fortunately, I was able to get hold of three bottles."

"Great and Idiomatic (to stay in that peculiar semantic field Richard seems to enjoy so much) Foursquare even if, dare i say it... it's even better with a dash of water. I miss some perfectly interwoven layers like in the Criterion to score it even higher. Edit : forgot to mention the delicious Banoffee Pie. One more point."

"Rounder on the nose vs ECS 2008 and 2009. Overall a little more elegant (some additional years in the barrel(s) seem to pay off here), but otherwise more or less on par with his brothers."

"Foursquare…läuft"

"A powerful Foursquare with lots of character. The nose is complex and intense, with notes of tropical and dried fruits, wood, chocolate, caramel and nail polish. On the palate, the rum is very liquid and spreads rapidly with a certain explosiveness. The attack is clean and straightforward, with roasted, smoky and toasty notes accompanying chocolate and caramel. Fruit, on the other hand, is more subdued. The finish is long and persistent, the rum becoming sticky on the palate. There are notes of spice, roast and pepper. A more complex Foursquare, difficult to approach, but still very good."