Habitation Velier Foursquare 2013 is a direct continuation of a bottle released in 2015. That year, Luca Gargano bottled a two-year-old Barbadian rum for the Habitation Velier collection. It was the Foursquare distillery 's first Pure Single Rum : a rum made entirely from pot still distillation. Part of that same 2013 distillate remained in cask. Bottled in 2026, it is now 12 years old , bottled at cask strength (60%) , with no added sugar. This allows us to compare two ages of the same spirit, with eleven years separating the two releases.
Richard Seale's distillery, located in the parish of Saint Philip, works with molasses . Normally, they blend the distillate from their Coffey column still with that from their double copper retort still before casking. This batch is an exception: it contains only pot still spirit. Batch distillation retains more oils and heavier aromatic compounds in the spirit than column still distillation. This reveals the densest and most structured part of Foursquare's production, the part that is usually only used to enrich blends.
After the first two years, the rum underwent another ten years of tropical aging in the distillery's cellars. It remained in 370-liter ex-cognac casks , larger than standard bourbon barrels. Their capacity slows the exchange between the wood and the spirit. Nevertheless, the angel's share exceeds 60% of the initial volume. By comparison, it was just over 15% at the time of the first release. This high evaporation, typical of the Barbadian climate, has significantly concentrated the distillate.
