Been riding the bourbon train lately and was looking for a change of pace. Last summer, after several community recommendations, I started getting into sipping rums (because I needed more booze) and fell in love with the Doorley’s 12 year rum from the Foursquare distillery. Lovely, brown sugar butter notes, it it was a bit thin at 40%. Fortunately, the folks at Foursquare have an Exceptional Cask Series (similar to special annual or semi-annual whiskey releases like Bookers or Ardbeg). These are rums that are well aged, non chill filtered, no dosing, and are aged in a combination of casks reminiscent of ye olde rum trade such as bourbon, sherry, port, Madeira, etc. This release, Detante, is aged ten years and is a blend of rums aged in bourbon and port casks. The nose is redolent of brown sugar, butter, figs, raisins, and strawberry jam. The port influence carries on to the palate with strong oak and vanilla flavors wrapped in a velvety port blanket. The taste betrays the proof at 51% until the finish where there’s a bit of a swell from said proof followed by a long, fruity, simmering finish. This is what Angels Envy or Glenmorangie Quinta Ruban wished they tasted like. This is the best port cask ageing I’ve tried. High marks for this one. It’s a special release from August 2020, but I found it gathering dust on a back shelf in Total Wine. There might be a bottle near you still, and with the weather warming up, you might want a detour from your regular whiskey-based programming like I did. Cheers!