In a field crowded with world-class contenders, Barbados’s Foursquare Rum Distillery has claimed the International Wine & Spirits Competition’s (IWSC) highest honor for rum. Its Equidem 14-Year-Old—an opulent, double-aged spirit—has been crowned the 2025 IWSC Rum Spirit Trophy Winner, earning 98 points and setting a new benchmark for rum excellence. Below is a brief background, along with my personal tasting notes and the IWSC’s comments on the world’s best rum.
The IWSC, founded in 1969, is globally recognized as one of the most rigorous and respected judging platforms for alcoholic beverages. Each year, a panel of experts blind-judges thousands of entries across all major spirit categories, awarding only a select few with the prestigious Spirit Trophy—an accolade reserved for the most exceptional, innovative, and technically brilliant spirits.
This year’s top honor in the rum category went to Foursquare Rum Distillery in Barbados, a producer celebrated for its integrity, craftsmanship, and cask experimentation. Over the last two decades, Foursquare Distillery has emerged as one of the world’s preeminent rum producers.
The award-winning bottling, Equidem 14-Year-Old, is part of the distillery’s acclaimed Exceptional Cask Selection series and showcases an adventurous dual maturation—five years in ex-bourbon casks followed by nine years in rare ex–Black Muscat wine casks. The result is a rum of extraordinary richness, balance, and complexity, recognized by the IWSC as the world’s best in 2025.
Foursquare Rum Distillery: A Legacy of Excellence
Foursquare Rum Distillery was founded in 1996 by the Seale family. It’s situated in St. Philip, on a former sugar plantation that dates to 1720. Today, Richard Seale, a fourth-generation family member, leads the distillery with a reputation for uncompromising quality, transparency, and award-winning craftsmanship.
The distillery’s Exceptional Cask Selections (ECS) showcases its innovation and artistry. Released in numbered “Mark” editions, each ECS bottling features a unique cask finish and aging technique to push the boundaries of rum expression.
The rum undergoes a double maturation process. It’s first aged for 5 years in ex-bourbon barrels, building its core character. It’s then aged for 9 years in ex–Black Muscat wine casks, infusing luscious wine-derived complexity, making this the first Foursquare release using such casks.
Crafted as a single blended rum, it combines pot-distilled rum from a copper double-retort and column-distilled rum from a twin-column Coffey still. It’s bottled at a robust 61% ABV, without chill-filtration or coloring. The rum’s long maturation and innovative cask finish produce a rum offering purity of expression and a nuanced, layered complexity.
Foursquare, Equidem 14-Year-Old Rum, 61% ABV, 750 ml. 98 Points. $159
The rum features pronounced aromas of dried fruits, especially raisins and prunes, with tangerine and clementine zest, marzipan, seasoned oak, and subtle notes of ginger, dried turmeric, and floral notes.
It’s rich and robust on the palate with a layered complexity showcasing flavors of brown butter, honey, salted caramel, dark chocolate, molasses, ripe berries, black cherry syrup, old leather, and cigar box, along with intriguing savory elements of miso-like umami and dried mushrooms.
The finish is long, slightly dry, and smooth, with remarkably well-integrated alcohol given its high proof, along with lingering notes of vanilla, dried fruit, espresso, dark chocolate, seasoned oak, and a gentle smokiness.
The IWSC Judging Panel described the rum as expressing aromas of “vibrant tropical fruit and subtle hints of wood, complemented by warm spices and caramel. On the palate, it unfolds smoothly, revealing creamy molasses and dried fruit. The experience lingers with a long, sweet, and peppery finish.”
Foursquare’s Equidem 14-Year-Old is more than just a trophy winner—it’s a landmark expression that redefines what aged rum can be. With its seamless fusion of tropical fruit, spice, wood, and unexpected umami notes, it demonstrates the full potential of thoughtful cask experimentation and traditional Barbadian rum-making.
For connoisseurs and collectors alike, Equidem offers not only bold flavor and complexity but also a reflection of Foursquare’s relentless pursuit of excellence. This is a rum crafted with purpose, aged with precision, and worthy of the world’s stage.