Kill Devil Jamaica Hampden Estate Aged 16 Years – The Whisky Barrel Exclusive. Here once again we have three of my current favourite things.

First up we have another Cask Strength bottling from Hunter Laing’s wonderful Kill Devil range of Single Cask Rums, secondly we have a rum from Jamaica and more specifically from Hampden. Thirdly this is an exclusive release from The Whisky Barrel from whom I have ordered a good few rums over the past couple of years.

When it comes to their rum selection they focus entirely on Independent bottlings. They also obtain their own casks, which. Anh they release as their “Rabbie’s Rum” range. They usually have the best selection of Kill Devil rums and a fair few efforts from Bristol Classic Rum. Two of my favourite Independent bottlers.

I have covered Hampden Estate rums quite a lot. There have been numerous Independent bottlings. This is a rum from the 2001 vintage. Now over at Single Cask Rum, Marius Elder has put together a list of marques, years of release and ester count. Which is very useful. Good work Marius. This is bottling is from the marque Diamond H. This marque was recently released as a 2010 vintage by Velier, in conjunction with Hampden Estate as part of their 70 Year Anniversay celebrations.

I recently reviewed the 2010 Diamond H you can read that review here. It wasn’t my favourite Hampden of all time but still very good nonetheless. One of the reasons for that may have been the high ester count. I felt it might it slightly too sharp and dry for my personal tastes. The ester count is 900-1000. Which is pretty high in the grand scheme of things – HLCF for example is 500-700. LROK lower still at 200-400. I wouldn’t say either the HLCF or LROK aren’t funky.

Anyway we digress slightly so lets take a look at todays bottling. Kill Devil Jamaica Hampden Estate Aged 16 Years is drawn from a single cask yielding 265 bottles. It has been bottled at cask strength of 60.7% ABV and a bottle will set you back a very exacting £78.08. As far as I am aware Hampden have only recently begun ageing rum on site and the oldest tropically aged Hampden, I am aware of is around 8 years old. The rest was sold in bulk as unaged rum. It is very likely that the rum from this cask was aged entirely in a Continental European climate. Pot still distillation from November 2001.

Presentation wise we get the usual Kill Devil black bottle and tube, with the purple colour scheme denoting it is cask strength. The only change with this bottling is the cork seal which is gold. A nice little touch.

So far so good. The Whisky Barrel have already released two Hampdens in conjunction with Hunter Laing/Kill Devil. Both of which I enjoyed immensely. They also got their hands on an exclusive with BB&R which was also top-notch.

To be honest in order to “mess up” a Hampden you would have to do something pretty awful with it. Like dosage or just putting it in a rotten cask.

Anyway we’ve reached that time again so lets crack on.

When poured the rum is a light gold/straw colour. Which bears out my belief it is entirely continentally aged – the tropics would likely have yielded a darker spirit after 16 years (and a lot less than 265 full bottles as well I suspect).

In the glass the rum is a light gold – slightly more than a straw colour. Nosing the rum is a really nice reminder of a few older Hampden expressions I have enjoyed. Which is nice!

It’s quite heavy on the Nail Varnish – which I’m a big fan. There is also quite a lot of wood shavings in their – some sawdust. You can tell this has been aged longer than the 9 and 10-year-old rums I have had over the past year. It’s got an extra layer of oak and spiciness from the barrel, which marries nicely alongside the fruiter and funkier notes in this rum.

For the fruity and funky we are getting liberal doses of almost rotting banana, pineapple, coconut and a touch of bitter plum. Ginger, some white pepper and a touch of chilli oil.

It’s all very complex and quite challenging. But very pleasant and rewarding at the same time.

Moving onto the sip and it’s pretty manageable even at the full ABV of 60.7%. However, I still like a drop or two of water just to give it a bit more clarity for the tasting notes.

The initial sip is reasonably spicy with a good weight of oak and bourbon like cask influence. The fruity notes are there, especially the pineapple and a slight bitter tartness – some lemon zest. Big notes of ginger and a touch of cinnamon.

The mid palate is very pleasant and warming. Its vibrant and zesty but its all nicely balanced by the oak and barrel influence. There is a hint of stewed teabags and a tiny note of black coffee.

The finish is really nice and surprisingly fruity with a lot of black banana, pineapple and it develops into an almost tart citrus ending.

This rum has a surprising amount of balance to it and its been really well looked after. It’s probably about mid tier in terms of esters but it carries enough of the funk and hogo to make this unmistakably Pot Still Jamaican Rum.

It has a really good balance to it and it really does hit the spot. The price point is also very competitive.