Foursquare's Latest Exceptional Cask Rum Spotlights Moscatel Finishing
Mark XXX: Penultimus spent significant time in these rare fortified white wine casks
May 18, 2026 –––––– Danny Brandon
Providing bright citrus and sometimes floral notes, moscatel casks are among the most underrated vessels in the realm of aged spirits. It’s a fortified white dessert wine primarily from the Iberian Peninsula, made from sun-dried ripe muscat grapes and sometimes aged in a traditional sherry-style pyramid solera. They’re sometimes used in whisky finishing, with Redbreast, Woodinville, Sagamore, Kavalan, Bushmills, Tyrconnell, Macaloney’s, Penderyn, Cedar Ridge, and a few others having released moscatel cask expressions. Moscatel casks are rarer still in the world of rum, with only a handful of producers, including Mezan, New Grove, and Planteray, having tried the style. Now the prominent Barbados distillery Foursquare joins the list with its latest expression, Exceptional Cask Selection Mark XXX: Penultimus.
Winning Combinations
Penultimus is classified as a single blended rum, meaning that it’s a blend of copper pot-distilled and Coffey column-distilled rums, all made at Foursquare. It’s a traditional style touted by certain producers who create balance by combining heavier pot-distilled rums (typically more aromatic and with ester-driven “funk”) with lighter column-distilled rums (usually cleaner). It was aged entirely at Foursquare, spending 15 years in Saint Philip parish on the southeastern coast of Barbados, where barrels can lose an estimated 6%–8% volume annually due to evaporation. It was first aged in bourbon barrels for 10 years, before being finished for the remaining 5 years in moscatel casks. It was bottled unfiltered at 57% ABV and, like many other Foursquare rums, it includes no sugar, colorants, or flavorings.
Penultimus represents the 30th release in the Exceptional Casks Selection (ECS) series, which is Foursquare’s marquee collection. The distillery produces liquid for several labels, including The Real McCoy, Doorly’s, R.L. Seale’s, and Probitas, and it also sells stock to independent bottlers, who often bottle it as single casks. But fourth-generation master distiller and blender Richard Seale holds on to his most impressive barrels for ECS, which are often left to age longer prior to blending. The series debuted in 2008 and since then it hasn’t followed a set release schedule, with new batches only releasing when Seale comes across a selection of barrels that he deems worthy of carrying the ECS name.
ECS releases also have some qualities that make them very attractive to whisky lovers. The series focuses entirely on blending ultra-aged rums (all but one are at least 10 years old) with most featuring some kind of secondary maturation and others representing single-vintage blends. Over the years Seale has used several different finishing casks, including port pipes, zinfandel, cognac, and madeira casks. Penultimus marks the first time that the ECS series has utilized muscatel casks. The closest comparison is 2024’s Equidem, which was finished in casks that previously held black muscat—a wine made from the red Muscat Hamburg grapes, which is related to the white Muscat of Alexandria grapes typically used to make moscatel.
Beyond official expressions, French independent bottler Les Frères de la Côte (The Brothers of the Coast) once finished Foursquare rum in moscatel casks for its Vieux-Rhum label. That expression was aged for 11 years prior to finishing, spending 4 months aboard the company’s sailing ship before docking in France, where it was further finished for 9 months at the Saint-Étienne winery in the Rhône Valley.
How Does Foursquare Exceptional Cask Selection Penultimus Taste?
Foursquare Exceptional Cask Selection XXX: Penultimus Barbados Single Blended Rum
ABV: 57%
SRP: $170
Availability: Limited
This invites you in with an intriguing nose of burnt brown sugar, Creamsicle, candied orange slices, almond paste, antique oak, Mounds, and a bit of coffee. The palate is multilayered yet well balanced, offering vanilla, stewed fruits, ripe mango, orange spice, and cinnamon, with baking cocoa emerging with a few drops of water. The moscatel-derived citrus components are even more pronounced on the finish, with fresh oranges and lemon hard candy supported by chocolate, pipe tobacco, black cherry, pleasant tannins, and vanilla.
