Pure cane juice. To think that not so long ago, the Thai state was prohibiting any spirits bottled at above 40% vol. I also remember the first Chalong I tried really impressed me – at 40% vol. Colour: white wine. Nose: pure fermentary cane wine, vesou, pears, cherries, Jerusalem artichoke eau-de-vie (worth trying), varnish, diesel oil, drop of ammonia, lemon, even formic acid… May sound horrible but I just love all this. With water: rotting pineapples and bananas, that's just brilliant. Mouth: insane earthy cane, citrus, capers, tar… With water: immaculately salty. Oysters, olives, lime, lemon, grapefruit, yuzu, liquorice… Finish: long, incredibly clean, some total 'clear line spirit'. Comments: I'm not 100% sure I got the shochu part. Mea maxima Culpa. The rest I adored. Doorly's 14 year is a more recent addition to the Doorly's line, and also the oldest expression. It is currently exported to Europe, but otherwise only available from either the distillery or another bottle shop on Barbados itself. The Sovereignty rear label bears the following quotation that befits the dawn of Barbados’ new era.

Distilled at a small family-run distillery that makes some of the most popular rums in Barbados, every bottle of Foursquare Spiced Rum is a hand-crafted blend of fresh nutmeg, cinnamon, ginger and the distiller’s art. Refreshingly smooth on ice, Foursquare Spiced doesn’t contain the added sugar cane syrup commonly found in many other spiced rums. Foursquare Spiced Rum is an aged rum with hints of cinnamon, vanilla and nutmeg gently blended in at the distillery. The actual recipe is a family secret passed down through five generations. It is bottled in Hand Crafted European glass bottles with a hand dipped wax seal. The Rum heralds from Barbados – the island where rum was born. Nosing Doorly’s Fine Old Barbados Rum Aged 14 Years will be a familiar experience for anyone familiar with Foursquare rum. the best i ve tried so far, in a rum the aroma/taste i appreciate the most is fruitiness and this one have it at maximum, more than mount gay (their rums where my preferred, no more), nose some alcohol burn (of course, it s warming at 48% ABV) but after this some vanilla and tons of tropical fruits, in the mouth tropical fruits are so present, yes, some wood and spices attenuate the (natural) sweetness and give some complexity, but fruits are so predominant ... The aroma originally is very muted, distant, dominated by a focused sweet note - candied apples, marmalade, canned pumpkin, after adding a bit of water (the rum is bottled at 48 percent), the aroma slowly unfolds with more acrid, acidic notes of soft wood. Doorly’s Fine Old Barbados Rum Aged 14 Years. Yet another release from the increasingly prolific Foursquare Rum Distillery, Barbados. This release, unlike the Exceptional Cask Series (Empery and 2007 to follow) and the Velier collaborations (Patrimonio will also follow soon here) will be available as a constant addition to the Foursquare portfolio.The bottle is very attractive, the saturated colors of the parrot motif invoke the atmosphere of tropical nature, Caribbean, warm weather and bright sun. The shape of the bottle is old-school, squat, curvy, topped with artificial cork embedded in plastic (no problem for me, there is not enough genuine cork for all the booze in the world). We can imagine distilleries that would build barrel pools, all filled with saltwater to various degrees. Honestly, I've also tasted submerged wines, and it wasn't great. But this is something else, especially if you like salted liquorice. Let's move on... this one at the end of the touristic season (end october/start november) i ll buy a bottle for each of my waiters to celebrate another good season ! Handcrafted by Master Distiller and all-round hero Richard Seale using a blend of column and pot still rums that have matured for at least 14 years in ex-Bourbon barrels. It offers phenomenal value for money especially considering that a 14-year-old spirit matured in a tropical climate displays an equivalent development that might take nearer 30 years in Europe. Rums from Foursquare contain no flavourings or added sugar this one just has a little caramel to restore the cask colouring after dilution to 48% and a small portion of the blend was matured in ex-Madeira casks giving a wonderful natural sweetness and richness. There’s also more tropical fruits than a Carmen Miranda headpiece the nostalgia of toffee apples ginger beer and chocolate orange plus hedgerow berry jam cinnamon smoking barbeque embers vanilla mulled wine summer pudding and marmalade. Sip this slowly lovingly and neat. When all is said and done this is another beautifully balanced rum – there is enough variety in all the Foursquare releases to recommend purchasing at least one bottle of everything they put out.

The ABV for this Doorly’s has also been increased – 48% ABV. So it’s not Cask Strength but it has a bit more oomph than the 40% ABV Doorly’s. It may be that the other’s Doorly’s rums are also increased in ABV. Doorly’s White is now available at 47% ABV and R L Seale’s also had the ABV increased to 46% here in Europe. Foursquare are now also using synthetic cork stoppers rather than real cork. There have been a significant number of complaints about broken corks (not just from Foursquare products) over the past few years A somewhat familiar “ Foursquare” nose (if you drink as much rum from the Bajan distillery as we do, you’ll know what we mean). Ginger, cold toffee, raisins, prunes, nail varnish and fruit cake are second to a hefty dry, oaky woodiness. It’s not as boisterous a nose as some Doorly’s expressions, leaving room for pondering and intrigue. Taste

We sampled Doorly's 14, and I immediately loved it; I have a big soft spot for madeira-finished rum. My girlfriend and I later sampled other products at the tasting bar on the Foursquare premises, which also included the 14 year; I made sure to grab a bottle from their available selection to support the distillery directly. So my particular bottle isn't just an exclusive bottling or the oldest in the brand's lineup, but also a special souvenir.

We're going to make a big leap from Barbados to... Thailand. We can afford it, we don't use any kerosene (but it's true that sometimes there are notes of kerosene in our spirits). Podľa nášho cenového porovnávača stojí Doorly’s 14y 61,50€, takže ho môžeme zaradiť k drahším rumom. Niet sa ale čomu čudovať, je to 48% rum, s výborným pôvodom, ktorý zreje celých 14 rokov (nie „až“ 14 rokov). Cena je absolútne oprávnená. Objednať si ho budeme musieť z jedného z eshopov, v potravinových reťazcoch sa bežne nepredáva. As mentioned above, Doorlys 14 Year Old Rum is a blend of pot still and column still rums, the pot still brings complexity, depth and weight to the blend whilst the column still brings a good balance or aroma and flavour. The rums are statically aged for a full 14 years in small American oak casks which leads to complex character with delicate aromas, something that only time can produce. There is also a small component aged for 14 years in ex Madeira wine casks, this brings some chocolate and marmalade character to final rum. The rums are blended and allowed to marry together for a period so the rums fully integrate, prior to bottling. Once we start tasting the thing, the palate is where the battle is joined. Flavours vie for dominance – brine and olives and some nail polish duke it out with sweeter fruity notes of ripe red apples, pears and peaches in syrup, and very ripe dark cherries. On the flanks the molasses, toasted coconut and musky port-infused tobacco are having their own separate argument with a miso soup and kimchi, but the key takeaway is that when all is considered together, the whole palate is well-balanced between sweet, salt and sour. And the finish concludes this nicely by closing off the show with a spicy, long, dry, fruity and aromatic exhalation that somehow doesn’t give any side a win but shows off the best part of all of them. The latest permanent addition to the expanding Foursquare range is the oldest expression of Doorly’s to be made available in the UK.

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Which is not to say I am not really enjoying this rum. I am, it is a great rum and one which will stand up to anything else on the market at the moment. It’s competition for a space on my shelf comes from its own brothers though.