Review #312 - Bardstown Collaboration Series: Foursquare Rum Distillery
One of the many Collaboration Series bottlings - this is a partnership with Foursquare rum distillery. Bardstown Bourbon Company gives us the usual breakout of the blend on the side of the bottle:
90% of the blend is 7 year old Indiana rye (51% rye, 45% corn, 4% malted barley)
10% of the blend is 17 year old Tennessee bourbon (84% corn, 8% rye, 8% malted barley)
A relatively simple blend, then, by Bardstown standards, with only two components; the final product has spent 23 months aging in rum casks from Foursquare, which is located in Barbados.
Bardstown Collaboration Series: Foursquare Rum Distillery
USA - Blend
Current Locally Available Price: USD 145 (2024)
Age Statement: 7 Years
Strength: 53.5% ABV
Cask Makeup: Finished in Foursquare rum casks
Tasting Methodology: Reviewed 2 times over 8 months; bottles at 70% and 10% fill levels at times of review. Tasted in a Glencairn glass each time, rested 10-15 minutes
Nose: Slightly dry, sharp and estery - some age in the drying oak, but then more sugary notes come forward: brown sugar, syrup, sweet bread, and pineapple fruit. Molasses and cinnamon add more baking notes, and with time, bits of funk and mushy bananas can be found.
Palate: A medium mouthfeel, fizzy and sometimes sharp. Plenty of sweeter flavors: cream, brown sugar, vanilla, rum, and pineapples, but there's also a bit of peppery oak and spicy cinnamon. It takes time, but more estery funk does arrive - it's subtle, in the background.
Finish: Medium-long, warming and rounded, with a mix of sweet and spice: cinnamon, sharp pepper, maple syrup, and horchata. It becomes even sweeter with time, and that funk from the palate is lingering softly in the background.
Final Note: A relatively balanced whisky overall, though at times, it came across as overly sweet or overly spicy before reverting to the mean. The rum influence is definitely there, but not always too powerful - those funky, estery flavors were more of a subtle accent, while oak and strong sugar took center stage.
Our main issue here is pricing: Bardstown's website offers this for $160, which is very high, but we can now find this bottle on local shelves closer to $120 to $145. We suspect those prices are dropping because this isn't moving off of the shelves with that huge original price; value is indeed not very good.
Our Average Rating: 6.5 / 10
In the current whisky landscape of increasing prices and variable quality, we've added a value rating to our reviews that relates to the score and the available pricing of each whisky. This roughly equates to a 0-10 scale; no reviews so far have exceeded a score of 10, although it is technically possible for the formula to produce a value rating higher than 10 with a high enough score and low enough price.
Value Rating: 4.88
About Us: We're a husband and wife review team living in the Midwest United States. Generally, our reviews and tasting notes will be a compilation of both of our experiences with a whisky over several tasting sessions.
Check out our other Bardstown Bourbon Company reviews:
