Hampden Estate 8-Year

Hate the label. The rum smells like a barn at first sniff. Tastes like a barn at every turn and sip. Plenty of burn but no ethanol flavor. This is funky! Based on memory, this is a bit like Smith & Cross (but lower abv). Interesting but a bit challenging.

9:The nose opens with a gigantic fruit salad, drenched in sunshine. The very ripe exotic fruits have not yet passed the fateful stage of fermentation; they are simply gorged with sugar and develop sweet pastry aromas. These include almond powder and amarena cherry, spiced up with walnut liqueur and pine thorns.
Aeration and time bring a lovely golden patina, which adds firmness and liveliness. That's what's needed to contain all this powerful, fragrant fruit. There's also a hint of spice, with cinnamon and vanilla taking us right back to pastry indulgence.
9:The palate is well-balanced, soft, but with enough strength not to get bored. It is very slightly coppery, and hooks the taste buds with greedy notes of caramelized nuts. The fruit is darker than on the nose, with blackcurrant, blueberry and more mellow, candied prunes. The rum is relatively light, with a delicate creaminess.
8:The finish is fine and pastry-like, hovering between prunes and almonds.
It becomes even better with few airings. I bought the bottle one year ago. This tasting is so far the Best.

I was hoping for a fruit bomb, but this wasn’t it. All the liveliness seems to have been aged away. Lacks that sweet funky punch in the face. Get Rum Fire from the same distiller for a more lurid experience at 1/3 the price.

It's all right there, on the nose and in the mouth it's immediately apparent this is from Jamaica. Oddly, it burns more on the nose than in the mouth. Such a funky rum, zero sweetness or caramel. It's like a peated whiskey, with huge amounts of smoke through it. But there's a vegetal quality to it, as if you'd passed some ardbeg through a bed of dried herbs. There's a sort of medicinal quality to it but the aftertaste is mainly bitter herbs and smoke. Dry as toast. Balance is the furthest thing from the mind, it's put all it's stats into power and boy can you feel it.

Much as the title suggests, this stuff has a lot in common with it's brother from the same distillery, but in a more refined form. There's still plenty of delicious overripe fruit funk, but it's tempered by a rich caramelly oakiness that is heavily reminiscent of a good bourbon. It's quite smooth and makes a lovely sipper, although I rarely drink rum neat so it's probably a little wasted on me. It does make a great Mai Tai, daiquiri, or *gasp* rum & Coke though! It's a bit too expensive to replace Smith & Cross as my go-to Jamaican (and honestly I wouldn't want to even if it wasn't- S&C is great stuff already, and not everything needs the extra oak), but as an occasional treat it's a wonderful thing. Would highly recommend.

Now we're talking. This stuff is tasty.
Now I might not have the best palate, sense.of smell, etc., but I didn't get any of the diesel or rubber that I've read in reviews. I get a lot of warmth and rich caramel, a bit of grassiness/vegetal notes, and a smooth, quite dry finish.
Not harsh at all to me. Almost armagnac-like in it's complexity with a bit of wildness. Tame, definitely had more wild rums, but dang, this is good.
Definitely curious about my next taste, as this was fresh from a new bottle in a double rocks glass. Definitely an 8 from the jump, maybe 8.5, but I wont round up just yet.

Very good Jamaican. On the nose is strong funk with a lot of banana. Smooth on the palate with long finish and little burn. Overall superb rum, maybe a little bit overpriced, as Appleton 12 is similar and more affordable.

This is a real nice rum, maybe not my favorite but definitely a good choice.

Honestly, I'm pretty disappointed about this.

I was hoping for a lot of funk, which there isn't, imo. It sits neatly between Appleton 12 and Smith & Cross in terms of funk and heat, though the heat is surprisingly subdued, and the funk is mainly rubber.

Notes I pick up are mainly rubber, though it's also a bit sweet, and I don't know how else to put this, but it tastes "dusty".

I don't think this one is bad, but I expected a lot more interesting notes, especially for the price point. I have yet to have the funkiest ones like Hamilton, Dr. Bird, Rum Bar, etc, but I hope they are significantly more interesting. For now I'll stick to my Appleton 12 (once this bottle is empty.)

The smell is the bomb, as soon as I opened the cap BOOM! Fruit, freshness
The taste follows the aroma very nicely and combines fruit and a little sweetness from vanilla and the pungency of ginger
A very pleasant banana finish
The taste of Jamaica in every sip