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Hampden Estate Great House Distillery Edition Rum
Anyone who has had the privilege of traveling to Trelwany, Jamaica and visiting the historic Hampden Estate Rum Distillery has seen the establishment’s Great House. The estate was originally surveyed in 1684 and by 1753 was a fully operating sugar plantation that eventually encompassed 3500 acres in the “Queen of Spain Valley”. In 1779 Archibald Sterling built what become known as the Great House and operated the first floor as a rum store until its closure in the 1900’s. Over time the possession of the estate changed and for a time was operated by the Jamaica Sugar Company. In 2009 the company decided to divest itself of the estate and the Hussey family as Everglade Farms Ltd. purchased it at a public auction. Since that purchase the Hussey family has invested heavily into Trelwany region and its surrounding areas infrastructure with an eye toward a sustainable future of the community.
In 2019 Hampden Estate released Great House, Distillery Edition Rum. The product is a blend of two molasses based rums that are distilled using the estates pot stills and aged in used American oak barrels for an unspecified time period. The product is then blended by Hampden Estates Master Blender, Vivian Wisdom, to 59% ABV and bottled in 700 ml bottles. Originally planned to be a distillery exclusive, 240 bottles were allocated to the European market, and is available for purchase in the Distilleries Gift shop along with Rum Fire and other branded merchandise.
Hampden Great House
Appearance
The box and 700 ml bottle have matching white backgrounds with red script. The rum in the bottle and the glass has a bright golden amber color. Agitating the liquid created an interesting effect, first as the band began to thicken a lightning bolt of liquid descended to quickly down the glass, then as the band began dropping slow moving tears down the side eventually evaporating to the point all that was left was a ring of residue around the glass.
Nose
I love it when the aroma of Rum transports you back to when you visited the distillery and this product certainly does that. Nosing the glass I found notes of grilled pineapple, fresh cut Granny Smith apple, lemon zest, savory/smoky barbecue pork, (think Trader Vic’s Chinese Oven ribs), rounded out by charred oak.
Palate
The initial sip ignites the tongue with a rush of stinging alcohol and as the rum covers the inside of the mouth in a solid swirl of caramelized fruit notes conditions the palate for the upcoming sips. Wow do these sips deliver, as I immediately detect the grilled pineapple, lemon zest, and apple notes from the aroma. There is also ripe banana, French toast, dried tobacco leaf, charred sugar cane, graphite, dark baking chocolate, charred oak with just a hint of the savory barbecue note in play. The fruit notes linger in a nice long finish that ends a bit drier than I expected.
Review
With my experience with previous Hampden Estate Products my expectations were set pretty high. I am grateful that the rum did not disappoint and if anything may have raised the bar even higher. The complexity and depth of flavors have some of the keynotes I associate with Hampden Estate, but it also has its own unique identity, which I feel is important at this stage for the company modern development. For me, this is clearly sipping rum; I could not imagine mixing or diluting this product down as I enjoyed the purity of what the blender created. The savory notes found in the aroma and palate were surprising in the best of ways and are just one of the funky puzzle pieces I discovered during the review. For anyone visiting the distillery that enjoys the crazy complexity that Jamaican Rums has to offer, this might be one of the souvenirs you consider taking home.
Cheers!
