sagacity
the quality of being sagacious
sagacious
1a: of keen and farsighted penetration and judgment : DISCERNING sagacious judge of character
I have to say; there is nothing I look forward to more than a new release of the Exceptional Cask Selection series from Foursquare Rum Distillery in Barbados. So many people clamor over Pappy Van Winkle and Buffalo Trace’s Antique Collection and consistently overlook one of the best values on the liquor shelves today.
This doesn’t come from the lips of a fanboy, but as someone who has tried just about every limited release on the market and time and time again, this range consistently lives up to the series’ namesake. While my beloved Port Cask, Zinfandel Cask, and Premise may struggle to meet the high bar set by other releases, those rums far exceed expectations of any spirits aficionado.
August 2019 (though most markets did not see it until 2020 due to import issues) say their latest release of Sagacity, Mark VI of the Exceptional Cask Selection series. A 12-year-old single blended rum made up of two components; each seeing an equal amount of time in Ex-Madeira casks and a combination of Ex-Bourbon barrels. All of which were aged in a tropical environment at Foursquare in their open-air warehouse.
This release is bottled at 48% abv with no added sweetener, wines, boisé, caramel coloring, or chill-filtration.
APPEARANCE
Nothing too new or exciting about the bottling as it is in the standard bottle that is used for all of Foursquare’s ECS and Doorly’s releases. However; the recent releases of Empery, 2007 Vintage, Sagacity are now adorned with fabric and wax seal around the bottlenecking.
The Rum, however, is a bit more of deeper auburn color to it than previous releases.
AROMA
If Aphrodite is real; this what she probably smells like. There is a comforting warmth of whipped maple butter melting on homemade waffles. Homemade butterscotch candies, lemon curd, and buttermilk pie (which is the closest to a religious experience that you can probably have).
Did I say, Aphrodite? I meant grandma. This smells like grandma’s house. In the south. On a warm summer day.
Give your grandma a call if you can.
PALATE
The feelings of family and comfort continue the moment this rum hits your lips. This is the love child of Criterion (arguably the Mark that put Foursquare on the map in the US) and The Real McCoy 14 year. The comfort profile exudes forward with buttery pie crust before subtly expressing flavors of ripe melon, guava fruit, and mango creamsicle.
BODY
There is a warm richness that embodies very soft tannins.
FINISH
There is finally some baking spices and leather that come forward from the barrels, taming the pastry profile of Sagacity. This transitions into the bitter orange pith and a slightly acrid note that causes your mouth to water along the side of your tongue.
OVERALL
I stand by the idea that this is the lovechild of Criterion and Real McCoy 14. This manages to embody all of those rich Madeira notes found in both of those releases and lower proof keeps the astringency of Criterion’s high proof and acrid old wood note on the backend of Real McCoy 14 at bay. It is wonderfully structured and painfully easy to drink given the high price point.
Before Foursquare came into my life, I was a fool for any spirit that saw time inside of port pipes. However, Richard Seale has changed all of that. I may have mentioned this elsewhere before, but the man is an absolute wizard when it comes to maturation in Madeira casks. He knows how to get the rum and the character left in the barrels from those incredible wines to work together and create something better than each on their own.
It has been mentioned before that Caribbean rum and Madeira have a long intermingled history in our part of the world and I look forward to Richard continuing to tell that story with further releases like this.
