French bottler Compagnie Des Indes has earned a good reputation in a somewhat short amount of time. They buy casks of rum, mostly through brokers, from distilleries all over the world. Sometimes they create a blend of multiple origins, or finish it in a peated whisky cask for example. Luckily, they mostly don’t mess with it and put it straight in a bottle, which has my preference and is one of the main reasons why I’m a fan. When it comes to ageing, the majority of their rums will have a high percentage of European ageing.
In this case it’s a blend of multiple distilleries from Barbados. The suggestion is Foursquare, West Indies Rum Distillery and Mount Gay. There isn’t a 100% clarity on this though, probably because the third can’t be officially mentioned. This is just an assumption.
RumShopBoy Simon got some feedback from Compagnie Des Indes in regards to this rum. They said it’s 70% column still and aged in the tropics for 2 years, then blended into a cask and aged in Europe for another 18 years.This claim raised a few questions. Foursquare typically doesn’t sell bulk rum younger than 3 years tropical ageing. I asked Richard Seale and he said the Foursquare component could be unaged, very light column still rum.
Facts-ish
Distilleries: Foursquare, WIRD, Mount Gay
Bottler: Compagnie Des Indes
Age: 20 years
Abv: 45%
Nosing
Bourbon cask vanilla is there, it's briny, sea weed, olives, raisins and some nice varnish. Foursquare is screaming in the distance.
Tasting
The colour of this rum is very light and the initial taste is a bit light as well. There is a slight metallic note which is not that nice but it’s followed by some delicious strong coconut and burnt oak. Medium long slightly bitter oaky finish with a bit of burn.
Deceit-O-Meter
Nothing deceiving about this one. If I'm nitpicking I'd say it's not totally clear which distilleries the rum in the blend is from.
Level: Zero to low
Conclusion
It’s a nice rum. Perhaps a bit too light in flavour for me. I’d rather drink a punchy Foursquare ECS or Mount Gay XO than this more expensive 20 year Barbados blend. It can still be purchased through regular retail channels in Europe (March 2019).
Score: 70
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