Aroma visualization from community tastings
Foursquare ECS XVI Shibboleth 2005
Toasted coconut, vanilla and dried fruit lead here, with dark chocolate and a whiff of nail-polish funk underneath. This 16-year Foursquare from the 2005 vintage runs drier and woodier than the younger 2008/2009 ECS bottlings, with the 56% well tucked in. Many rate it near the top of the series; a few find it rounded but a touch interchangeable with its Foursquare siblings.
The community says- Coconut and vanilla
- Well-integrated 56%
- Short finish
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The look inside the bottle
How does Foursquare ECS XVI Shibboleth 2005 taste?
Aggregated from 181 community reviews.
Dry, coconut-and-oak Foursquare for sipping Widely loved as one of the better ECS releases — round, dry and elegant with coconut, oak and dried fruit. The one gripe: some feel it's a bit typical and short on the finish.
Foursquare and Barbados fans who like dry, oaky, coconut-driven sippers
People chasing big fruit, high funk or a long finish
How the community classifies this rum. Each category takes you to similar rums.
65 of 181 left detailed tasting impressions · Click an aroma to explore similar rums
How is Foursquare ECS XVI Shibboleth 2005 rated?
RumX’s 0–10 scale is strict: 8.6 sits in the “Very good” band. 97% of tasters rate it Good or better; only 0% rate it below average. See the full rating guide →
Live auctions
Current bids for this rum at Europe's leading auction houses.
Community voices
What does the community say?
15% rate it between 6 and 8. 20 selected write-ups from 181 community ratings. You can view the complete list in our app.
Review by Galli33
My personal winner of todays FS tasting shibb>2009>empery. This one has the best round overall feeling. Alcohol is integrated better than in others. All in all, all three are very similar in tastes/smells. Nose: solvents, dried fruits, coconut, raisin, carmel, butterscotch, woody, oak, roasted nuts, cashews Mouth: dry, sharpness, round, elegant, full bodied, complex, balanced, coconut, raisin, dried fruit, caramel Finish: Medium, dry, round, dried fruits, sweet, caramel, oak(barrel), vanilla, roasted nuts, cocoa, dark chocholate roasted
Review by Kevin Sorensen 🇩🇰
A very nice and well balanced rum especially thinking about how well the wood has been integrated without being dominant. Lovely rum that is already hard to obtain. Price to quality is not so good, but still a good rum.
Review by Mirco
Vanille und Kokosnuss dominieren das Aromaprofil, begleitet von holziger Trockenfrucht und dezenten Gewürznoten. Im Mund präsentiert er sich reichhaltig und elegant, mit trockenem Finish, das noch Tabak und geröstete Nüsse beisteuert. Komplex, klar strukturiert.
Review by Benoit Mahe
An elegant and intense Foursquare, a beautiful selection
Review by Frank
I'm always a bit skeptical about the 4 corners, they're not really my thing. They are mostly too well-behaved and too pleasing to me, good beginners with decent quality but always very interchangeable. Let's see...Nose: nice fruity-spicy, I immediately sweet cream toffee with a slight tobacco-smoke note. Behind that a mix of fruits with vanilla that reminds me of mealy sweet cherimoya (pear, banana, strawberry, apricot). Burnt sugar and some wood round things out. Very pleasing.Palate: fruity-woody, with decent coconut. Good then comes apricot and somehow quince. I also find tobacco here and then something green and herbal towards saffron. And for molasses makes you noticeable.Not bad, but yet so similar to all the others.
Review by Jakob
Surprisingly mild - alcohol well integrated, plus a fruit note rather unusual for Foursquare. No revolution in taste, but a good representative. If with increasing age actually further flavors in the known spectrum, one can hopefully look forward to further releases of similar (tropical) maturity. I like it well.
Review by MJ97
On the nose, the 1 is more pastry-like. Orange and damp wood. Then the solvent side comes in. On the palate, it's much rounder, much more direct, with pastry / mocha / vanilla. It takes up the whole mouth and is as round as it should be, with superbly well-integrated alcohol. The finish is greedy, medium-long, with wood coming through and becoming bitter.
Review by crazyforgoodbooze
Extremely nice roasty, strong and fruity-spicy Foursquare. You can't go far wrong with it if you like the profile, but overall it is also somewhat inconspicuous and joins the ranks of the typical Foursquares.
Review by Tim
On the nose, vanilla caramel alternates with spicy wood. Sometimes a hint of fruit or chocolate shines through, but the fruit is more discreet compared to the FS 2008. Very tasty profile! Rather less spicy in the mouth, despite 56%. Still naturally spicy, woody, chocolaty, fruity. Now far too expensive, a very good rum anyway.
Review by Sebastian Kornett
Reminiscent of all vintage bottling, only that this is rounder and more intense. The 16 years stand him well. Longer, however, it should not be. Fortunately, I was able to get hold of three bottles.
Review by Timo Groeger
Schöner Foursquare hier. In der Nase haben wir eine schöne Mischung bestehend aus Vanille, Kokosnuss und Holz. Am Gaumen ebenfalls angenehm süß, zur Vanille gesellen sich hier Karamell und Schokolade, außerdem wieder Holz und Kokosnuss.
Review by Paul Christiaens
Tasted this together with the Blackadder. This one is smoother, has some funk and is even better balanced. Hence the winner of the two. Nose: great notes of glue and varnish, some flor (sherry yeast), coconut, chocolate. Banana peal, leather, tobacco. Orange, dried fruit. Palate: soft and oily, although spicy. There is a good deal of the funk left (varnish, banana peal, light petrol note), but next to that also prune, leather, tobacco, wood, orange liqueur and baking spice. Finish: long, nicely balanced between funk, sweet fruit and cake, coconut, chocolate, and darker notes of leather and tobacco.
Review by Oliver
Quite round and accessible Foursquare - without being boring!On the palate strong, spicy and tasty. Great bottling!
Review by Double Barrel
Great and Idiomatic (to stay in that peculiar semantic field Richard seems to enjoy so much) Foursquare even if, dare i say it... it's even better with a dash of water. I miss some perfectly interwoven layers like in the Criterion to score it even higher. Edit : forgot to mention the delicious Banoffee Pie. One more point.
Review by DomM
Rounder on the nose vs ECS 2008 and 2009. Overall a little more elegant (some additional years in the barrel(s) seem to pay off here), but otherwise more or less on par with his brothers.
Review by TheRhumhoe
A powerful Foursquare with lots of character. The nose is complex and intense, with notes of tropical and dried fruits, wood, chocolate, caramel and nail polish. On the palate, the rum is very liquid and spreads rapidly with a certain explosiveness. The attack is clean and straightforward, with roasted, smoky and toasty notes accompanying chocolate and caramel. Fruit, on the other hand, is more subdued. The finish is long and persistent, the rum becoming sticky on the palate. There are notes of spice, roast and pepper. A more complex Foursquare, difficult to approach, but still very good.
Review by Tschusikowsky
Foursquare…läuft
Review by Insta: spiritofbernard 🇫🇷
The best Foursquare I've ever tasted ❤️
Review by mto75
the Shibbo is rounder on the nose than the 2008 and 2009 tasted just before, but I also attribute a bit to the lower ABV level. The 16 years of barrel aging I find amazingly well done, not at all too dominant, there remains a nice fruit note, even a little in the direction of the fresh notes, which I usually locate rather with Agricole.
Review by Henry Davies
It’s not my favourite Foursquare ECS but undoubtably a very well made and balanced rum. If anything it feels more grown up than many of the ECS series, with real woody notes and a more subdued sweet edge. The aim of demonstrating 16 years of aging without the oak of the barrel overwhelming works well, with a sweet caramel cutting across the oak. It’s a rum for savouring and a less typical Foursquare profile with a drier finish and less tropical notes. Looking forward to revisiting
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Expert reviews
2 critics scored it, averaging 9.4/10. Reviews from RumX's blog partners, independent experts who have tasted, evaluated, and described this rum..
Expert review by Rum nagykövet
Read full review →
Expert review by The Fat Rum Pirate
Read full review →The bourbon influence on this is much less than you might expect and its a much fruitier - less dry rum. And its pretty fantastic to be fair...........but please don't ask me how it rates against their other releases. Its as good as rum gets - thats all you need...
Details about Foursquare ECS XVI Shibboleth 2005
A Pot & Column Still Rum from Barbados, distilled by Foursquare, at 56%.
Community purchases
496 bottles logged by 324 collectors.
A collector's bottle.
10% opened, 23 emptied and repurchased.
What does Foursquare ECS XVI Shibboleth 2005 cost?
Community paid 108–180 €.
Current best price: 196.70 € – above the typical community range.
What members actually paid for their bottles. A typical range, not the current shop price. Full price & collection history in RX+ →
496 purchased · 182 tasted · 41 wishlist · as of
About the Foursquare distillery
The Foursquare distillery is located in Barbados. Rums from Foursquare have been reviewed 14,076 times with an average of 8.3/10.
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Foursquare ECS XIX Sovereignty 2007
Foursquare ECS XIX Sovereignty 2007Sherried Foursquare, hot but rewards resting
Foursquare ECS XIII 2008
Foursquare ECS XIII 2008Dry, woody, coconut-vanilla Foursquare at full strength
Foursquare ECS XVIII Indelible
Foursquare ECS XVIII IndelibleLight, balanced Foursquare that wants more punch
Foursquare ECS IX Empery 2004
Foursquare ECS IX Empery 2004Rich, oaky sherry-finished Foursquare sipper
Foursquare ECS XVII 2009
Foursquare ECS XVII 2009Classic Foursquare: coconut, oak, cocoa, spice
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Oliver · FounderBy rum lovers, for rum lovers
I'm Oliver, and RumX began in 2018 as a small passion project in Stuttgart, back then under the name Rum Tasting Notes.
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