Cask finishing is hardly new in the whiskey business. Name a barrel type — French oak, Mizunara, Amburana, ex-sherry, ex-port, ex-Madeira — and, most assuredly, some bourbon, rye, or Scotch has spent the final period of its maturation in it.
While not as popular as Spanish and Portuguese fortified wine casks, rum barrel finishing is hardly atypical, either, with brands like Balvenie (The Caribbean Cask 14) and Angel’s Envy (Rye Finished in Caribbean Rum Casks) even making such expressions part of their core lineups. And yet, it’s nearly impossible to think of a rum brand that’s literally called out by name when used as a whiskey finishing barrel.
Then there’s Foursquare, which, in many recent cases, gets the same billing on product labels as the whiskey brands being allowed to finish their products in the Barbadian rum casks. In fact, one could argue, Foursquare’s involvement is the key reason people care about these releases.
Transformation of the Spirit
Take the most recent Singular Limited Release No. 7 from High N’ Wicked.
That brand was founded by two former Brown-Forman executives, W. L. Lyons Brown III and Kevin E. Sachs, who didn’t want to simply source whiskey, but instead create a brand centered on provenance and transparency.
They contract distilled with New Riff and early releases included flagship expressions like a 5-year-old sweet mash Kentucky straight bourbon and a 5-year-old sour mash Kentucky straight rye.
“We also wanted to have these little one-off things that speak to provenance, that speak to
