Kill Devil Jamaica Hampden Distillery Aged 9 Years
Kill Devil Jamaica Hampden Distillery. Hampden Distillery as is the trend in Jamaica is better known as Hampden Estate. This is largely because these distilleries did/do produce their own sugar cane on their vast estates. So they are not just simply a distillery.
Kill Devil have featured quite prominently on the site over the past two years. They began issuing 46% ABV single cask spirits in a similar fashion to bottlers such as Cadenhead’s and Samaroli. Like Cadenheads Kill Devil have now moved into Cask Strength bottlings.
Like Cadenhead’s their Cask Strength offerings are immediately different to the standard ABV bottlings. Kill Devil use a red/pink colour scheme on their bottle labels rather than grey for the 46% ABV offerings.
I came across this bottling on the Whisky Barrel. The Whisky Barrel is a sit which concentrates largely on single cask Independently bottled whiskes. They do also carry a number of rums from bottlers such as Berrys’, Bristol, Duncan Taylor and of course Kill Devil.
Released late in 2017 this 9 year old Hampden Estate 100% Pot Still rum is one of just 55 bottled by KIll Devil. I do not know if they bottled the remainder and the more regular 46% ABV. I doubt this was all that came out of the cask. It was distilled in November 2007 and bottled sometime in 2017. The ABV for this is 62.7% ABV. It has been aged entirely in a European climate. It retailed at around £60. Presentation wise it is standard Kill Devil you get a sturdy cardboard tube and a good quality cork stopper. The opaque bottle and the labelling is the standard Kill Devil design. Information on the bottle is sufficient if not hugely detailed.
I’ve really been enjoying the funky Pot Still rums of Jamaica but I was slightly concerned by this bottle. The odd number of bottles and its fairly inexpensive price tag were concerns.
So should I have been concerned? Let’s find out….
In the glass the rum is a very little straw to white wine colour. I’ve no doubt there is no added colouring with this one.
Pungent is the best word. This rum is right up there in terms of fruity, medicinal, boozy, funky nonsense. It’s huge.
Even if you leave this for half an hour in the glass it will still leave you reeling when you swirl the glass or take a sip. Give this to a novice rum drinker and they will never touch a drop of rum again! If you’d given me this five years I would have run a mile.
Which is probably why I found the nose on this so absolutely tremendous today. Black bananas, huge notes of cough medicine, pineapple, mango, nail varnish, paint stripper . This is Hampden dialled up to 11. You can sip this for hours and still be picking out more and more nuances and flavours.
Sipped at the full ABV it is a real tongue stinger and will numb it. Fortunately because there is so much flavour in this rum the rest of your mouth will be having a party with it – even with the tiniest sip on the tongue. This is like some kind of mad rum concentrate.
Sipping it at the full ABV would take you hours. I tried a mouthful at full ABV (even with my mouth wide open to dull the flames) – it was just too much to realistically sip and enjoy for me. Water? Absolutely bring it down to around 50-55% ABV and you’ll get a much more pleasureable experience.
Whatever you do don’t worry about losing any flavour. There is little chance of that.
This is a really big, powerful, funky and medicinal rum from Hampden. Straying more into what I would term as Long Pond territory. It has that minty and almost clinical fruitiness to it. In terms of the nine year of ageing the barrel has for what I can been quite passive with this distillate. This is very much a distillate driven rum. The ex-bourbon may have given it a bit of depth but in terms of flavour this is very much a refined but pretty much unaged type of profile.
It starts with a huge sweet hit of sugar and banana’s, toffee and that strong fresh menthol/minty note. It’s got an earthy note as well – soil and a bit of hay. The ageing in the barrels does come through in the mid palate which is bright and fresh and very spicy. The finish is the only real downside and that is perhaps where it does fall down a touch. It’s quite short and whilst its nice and warming it is a bit of a let down. The aftertaste is slightly odd and very boozy. You really need to brush your teeth to get the smell of this one of your breath.
Sadly you’ll struggle to find a bottle now. Even had I reviewed this ASAP it did sell out within a couple of weeks. Still it does encourage me to try some single digit Hampden rums.
I got a bit of a bargain with this one and I’m pleased I’ve still got (most) of one bottle of this left.
The Duchess Trinidad Rum Aged 21 Years hails from the iconic and now defunct Caroni Distillery. Despite the length of time since the distillery closed – way back in 2002, we are still seeing casks of rum being released by Independent bottlers from the late 1990’s.
cork. The cork beneath is a chunky synthetic affair. I really like the artwork on these releases, though the differing coloured fonts can make some parts more difficult to read than others.
a tinge of vanilla. The initial tobacco heavy entry quickly moves to a sweeter mid palate full of these fruity flavours. The overlay of smoke, tobacco, tar and nail varnish make this a very complex and rewarding tot.
St Abbs Captain’s Table XO comes from newcomers Black Mountain Spirits. They have three rums in the St Abbs range. St Abbs is the brain child of entrepeneur David Owens. David has a recent history in the rum world. He was involved in Takamaka (formerly Takamaka Bay) rum which hailed from the Seychelles.
The ageing and interaction with the bourbon barrels produces a rich and warming finish. It is long and satisfying. This is a very British style of rum.
Monymusk Overproof White Rum. Monymusk Sugar Estate lies in the South of the island of Jamaica on the Vere Palins in the parish of Clarendon. Rum has been made from Jamaican molasses in this area since the 18th century. Monymusk rum is initially distilled at the ultra modern Clarendon Distillery. The rums in the Monymusk portfolio are then blended and aged at the nearby Innswood facility which was also formerly a distillery but is now a blending and ageing house.
This is a white overproof rum. A more familiar White Overproof would be J Wray and Nephew or Rum Bar Overproof from Worthy Park. Monymusk have opted however for a less partisan colour scheme. Red, white and black.Rather than the greens and yellows favoured by those two overproofs.
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The Real McCoy Aged 12 Years Limited Edition. Yet another rum up for review from the prolific Foursquare Rum Distillery, Barbados. This rum has been “around” for quite some time I first tasted it at the Boutique Rum Festival in London in October 2016. And then I waited………
Another rum from the Kill Devil Single Cask range. This time hailing from Barbados. This bottling is identified as being from the Foursquare Distillery.
The nose on the rum has nice balance to it – as I expected. The usual notes of vanilla and sweet/sour mash bourbon like oaky notes. What is a surprise is the strong smell of varnish – which really does make the nose tingle a little. I quite like the extra bit of oomph it seems to deliver to the nosing experience.
From what I understand Appleton Special isn’t widely available in a lot of territories. It is freely available in the UK though.
rum is respected in the rum world especially amongst mixologists such as Jeff “Beachbum” Berry who has included it in a good few of his cocktails over the years.
Once you start mixing with this or the V/X and you’ve had a couple you’ll probably not notice much of a difference. A rum and cola made with a slice of lime and plenty of ice is very enjoyable with the Appleton Special. The fieriness of the rum still comes through and you get all that lovely funky Jamaican rummy goodness.
Sounds delightful!