3 Hampdens + Many Feelings: Pagos, Great House 2023, Down Island HD 🔷H 2014 10yo Jamaica Rum скачать в хорошем качестве

3 Hampdens + Many Feelings: Pagos, Great House 2023, Down Island HD 🔷H 2014 10yo Jamaica Rum

And we're back at Hampden Estate in Trelawny, very possibly my favorite distillery in the world, reviewing two releases that basically everyone else already talked about earlier this year plus a shiny new single cask independent bottling from Down Island. We've got sherried mid-ester Hampden, we've got blended marque mid-ester Hampden, and we've got higher ester Hampden partly aged in the UK - what could go wrong? Aaand stats: Hampden Estate "Pagos" Pure Single Jamaican Rum, 2023 Edition (Trelawny; wild-fermented, pot-distilled molasses aged in ex-oloroso and pedro ximenez sherry butts; 467.9 g/hLaa esters; 52% ABV), 86/100 Hampden Great House Distillery Edition 2023 Old Pure Single Jamaican Rum (Trelawny; Trelawny; wild-fermented, pot-distilled molasses aged in ex-bourbon casks, 40% 2016 HLCF and 60% 2021 LROK; 57% ABV), 89+/100 Down Island Jamaica HD 2014 10 Year Old Single Cask Rum (Hampden Estate, Trelawny; wild-fermented, pot-distilled molasses, aged in ex-bourbon casks for 4 years in Jamaica and 6 years in the UK, bottled 2024; 🔷H, 900-1000 g/hLaa esters; 68.5% ABV), 91/100 These are really, really good, because of course they are. But the cheapest thing on the table is $90 and, well... as a reviewer, what do you do when pricing has crept up to that degree? I've been hyping up Hampden for years now and despite the evident quality in everything they do, this is the first time I've felt that I really need to pick and choose my purchases. I really, really don't want to Springbank these guys. On to the bottles, and let's start with the Great House. I've reviewed three of these things before (   • Hampden Great House Rum 2020 review (guest...   for 2020,    • Hampden Great House 2021, versus LROK 2010...   for 2021, and    • Hampden Great House 2022 review (versus Go...   for 2022) and with this one they've reversed the high speed train towards higher esters that characterized the previous two releases. This one is polished, poised, balanced - textbook aged Jamaica, really. It loses some of the complexity and length of previous years, but it's also arguably more drinkable and it's up to you whether that tradeoff is worth it. I'd love to have a bottle of this stuff but I'm also waiting for sale pricing, if you see what I mean. Now the Pagos, at least for me, doesn't really work. This is their line for sherry maturation, and here the sherry mostly gets run right down by the power of the distillate. It's a good Hampden, of course - it's hard to ruin Hampden - but it's very short in the mouth and, well, just not worth the ninety bucks. The HLCF Classic Overproof that came out around the same time, for the same price (   • Hampden Estate "HLCF Classic" Overproof Ja...   ), just crushes it. I would love to see Hampden experiment further with maturation - European oak, anyone? - but so far the sherry doesn't convince me. And then there's the Down Island, which nails the lunacy of oaky high-ester Hampden (because of course it does). It's floral and fruity and completely blown out and also features a weird Buffalo Trace riff, and I just adore it. But it's also $175 and, well... gun to my head, for that money I might prefer that 2010 STC❤️E I tried last year (   • Funkin' For Jamaica: Papalin 57.18%, Hampd...   ). So: is the Hampden hype still legit? Yes, absolutely! But at the same time... you know, be sensible. Extra special thanks to my Different Spirits on Patreon (  / differentspirits  ) - Eric Amig Jamie Brown Kingsbury bushcraft Rob D Liam Davitt Joe Devine Stephen Eckert eon Ingmar nine Steve Frazee Ian Gendler John Halliday Jason Newquist Kyaru No Thanks Matthew Ruiz RumSquirrel Dallas Shatel Chris Sherman Gordon W Zach W