Foursquare Convocation Rum Review

The latest ECS rum release from Foursquare distillery in Barbados is called Convocation. According to the Cambridge dictionary, this means:”a formal meeting, especially of religious leaders or at an educational institution”. I’ll leave it to more intelligent people to debate the deeper meaning.

Most Foursquare rums have been aged in ex bourbon cask, frequently in a combination with ex sherry maturation. Convocation has been aged in ex bourbon and Madeira casks. Despite owning a lot of ex Madeira barrels (more than sherry), there haven’t been a whole lot of Madeira ECS releases. I asked Richard Seale, Foursquare’s owner, a bunch of dumb questions to find out why. His patience with me was commendable. A couple of things came out of that exchange that give us some clues. First of all, Madeira is used for both Doorly’s 12 and Doorly's 14. These are higher volume releases from the core range, which means Madeira aged rum stock needs to be monitored carefully. In other words, an ECS release mustn't endanger core line production. Richard also mentioned they do full maturation in Madeira primarily. To my joy he finally added:”there will be more”.

I also asked about the ageing details of Convocation. Turns out there are 3 components in this pot and column distilled blend: straight 14 year bourbon, straight 14 year Madeira and 14 year double bourbon/Madeira. It’s bottled at an impressive 62% abv.

For this review I grabbed the only other Madeira Foursquare I have in my collection, which is the infamous Criterion. Problem is, that bottle is almost empty and the profile has definitely changed thanks to oxidation. Unfortunately not in a good way. So I won’t use my typical approach of writing down notes for both rums, I just used Criterion as a marker. You can read my Criterion review here, which I did years ago when the rum was fresh.  

Nosing

Oak, raisins, dates, tobacco, cigar box, light orange peel, strawberry, raspberry (perhaps a combination of the two in a piece of “tropical” fruit gum), very faint plastic, chocolate. I like how fruity this is.

Criterion and Convocation have a lot of similarities. Let’s talk about the differences. Criterion is a little hotter and not as fruity and chocolate forward as Convocation. The latter has more barrel influence, more oak. Criterion is more delicate, like a ballerina. For Convocation I see Richard wearing a big 80's curly haired rock wig, standing in front of a Marshall stack with a Les Paul Black Beauty around his shoulder (wow the man has good taste), stepping on a Tube Screamer distortion pedal. I can't describe it better or less graphic than that. Please, let someone make that into a gif.

A very non scientific observation is that after having both sitting in the glass for about half an hour, Criterion stayed the same, Convocation lost some of its boldness.

Tasting

It’s red fruits blended with oak and chocolate. Slightly nutty, has a creamy texture, wood spice is strong but not overbearing, tobacco and cigar box vibe is strong. I feel the sweeter notes keep the wood spice in check nicely. The flavours follow through on the solid finish, which has almost no bitterness. I want to keep drinking this, but only have a sample.

The differences with Criterion are similar to the nose. A little more bite, likely thanks to it being younger. Slightly less fruity and definitely less wood. Sweet tobacco galore. No bitterness on the finish. A fantastic rum that likely has lost some of its glamour because the bottle is almost empty.

Conclusion

Foursquare and Madeira go together very well. It provides such an exploration of flavours. Next to that, the Foursquare team have (again) been able to balance sweetness and oak spice very well. It’s a great rum. Is it better than Criterion? I love the boldness, but then I tend to lean towards the slightly younger Foursquare rums. However, one can only compare to a fresher Criterion sample to know for sure. Fact is, Convocation is not Equidem, but the enjoyment level is darn close.

More Madeira please!

Score

Foursquare Convocation – 93

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