Review: Foursquare Mark XXIX “Mandamus” Single Blended Rum

The 29th release in Foursquare‘s long-running collection of Exceptional Cask blended rums is named Mandamus, and it’s a doozy: The blend includes both pot and column rums distilled from molasses by Foursquare Master Distiller & Master Blender Richard Seale, using the distillery’s double-retort copper pot still and twin Coffey column still.

The rum is aged a total of 16 years on-site in Barbados — 10 years in ex–bourbon barrels and 6 years in ex–Port pipes. No added sugar, color, or flavor.

Foursquare Mark XXIX “Mandamus” Single Blended Rum Review

The Port gives this rum an incredible, instantaneous sweetness, though it lacks the overt raisin-and-chocolate character typical of Port. Brighter citrus notes light up on the nose, with plum and apricot waiting close behind. The aroma clearly connotes sweetness — brown sugar and molasses, with further aromas of coconut nectar and smoky tar beyond that.

I was expecting sweetness on the palate, but Mandamus is something else, a very unctuous, almost gummy experience that pours on liquified brown sugar from the start. Again, the Port is featured here more as a dessert wine that’s difficult to specifically identify, coming across like berry pie filling, well-dosed with granulated sugar but touched with coconut and milk chocolate. As the rum develops, things get decidedly busy, with a finish that borders on cloying in its sugary intensity. I barely noticed the alcohol due to the over-the-top sweetness.

All told it’s a wild ride, but this might have been better served with a few fewer years of finishing.

114 proof.

B+ / $160

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