The Whisky Barrel 17 Year Old Hampden 2000 Berry Bros & Rudd. Popular Independent Whisky retailer The Whisky Barrel have once again teamed up with London Independent bottler Berry Bros & Rudd to give us another exclusive Single Cask rum release.

This time we aren’t in Trinidad but instead we have a rum from the increasingly iconic Hampden Distillery in Jamaica.

Presentation wise the The Whisky Barrel 17 Year Old Hampden comes in your standard tall Berrys’ bottle and comes with a nice cork stopper. Berrys’ have recently updated the typeface and made slight changes to the presentation of their bottles. It’s also encouraging to see Cask Strength releases from them. They did tend to bottle their rums at 46% ABV which was a bit of an issue for some.

This 17 Year Old European Aged Jamaican Hampden Rum was distilled back in September 2000. It was bottled in early 2018 by Berrys’ exclusively for The Whisky Barrel. It is cask number #31 and is bottled at Cask Strength of 55.4% ABV. We have a run of just 220 bottles. It is currently priced at £75.60 exactly for 70cl of Jamaican rum goodness. It is noted on the front label as being Pot Still rum.

There isn’t a many mention of where this rum was aged. I’ve mentioned this before but as far as I know at this time Hampden did not age any stock in Jamaica. The rum will have been sold as bulk rum to blenders and brokers in Europe. It is likely this rum has been aged in Liverpool or Bonny Scotland.

I really enjoyed the previous Whisky Barrel exclusive so we’ll get on with it and see how this one is!

In the glass the Whisky Barrel 17 Year Old Hampden is a straw to dull gold colour. It looks a touch hazy. Perhaps minimal filtration with this one.

The nose is best described as very ripe – pungent. Sharp notes of medicinal funk – menthol, peppermints and a hit of almost sour Pineapple and Grapefruit. Zesty citrus fruits – Kumquats and sharp bitter Limes. We are getting into Long Pond territory but it dials back slightly toffee and brown sugar. Some Banana pudding and just enough oak to add an add a touch of refinement. It’s up there so far, so lets see how it sips.

The entry is quite spicy and very tangy – again quite a lot of citrus peel. Minty and fresh tasting. Vibrant and surprisingly sweet “boozy” notes. Rum soaked bananas. Banana fritters in boozy batter. Pineapples again – that grapefruit won’t go away either. There are some notes of white pepper and a touch of ginger and all spice.

The mid palate reveals more of the barrel influence with woody oaked notes coming into play as the spiciness of the initial sips subdues a little. This is a very funky, medicinal kind of Jamaican rum but it has a sweetness to it which really appeals to me.

In many ways it still feels young, fresh and a little raw but it makes for an amazingly complex sipper.

The finish is not overly long and is the less intense part of the drink. You feel it is very short at first because their is so much flavour in the liquid – what is left behind seems at first to be insignificant. Give it time though and you will realise their is a light nicely balanced spicy burn left behind along with just a little tongue tingling spice.

I may have enjoyed this at a younger age – again the sweeter notes. It’s not hugely oaky or anywhere near over oaked but I personally would have preferred more of the boozy sweet menthol notes

This is a rum which is certainly up there with the best Jamaicans I have tried so far. There are a lot of Independent Hampdens out there at the moment. Some are a lot more this expensive than this. I like what the Whisky Barrel are doing with their Indie rum selection so I’ll definitely pick up one or two of these!

PS Berry Bros & Rudd are okay as well I suppose….