CoR Hampden HD H 2013

Hampden is the loudest high-ester house in Jamaica, and this single cask from the 2013 vintage, the C and H selection, was bottled by The Colours of Rum, the young Polish label known for purist single casks at full strength with no additives and high transparency. Its flag-coloured livery has become a marker of uncompromising single casks.

Distilled on the double-retort pot still from molasses and matured in ex-bourbon casks, it is bottled unsweetened at a forceful 66.8%. The nose hits with pineapple, ester, glue and marzipan, the palate stays intense and funky in the same register, and the finish brings ester, banana, tropical fruit and a bitter edge. This is Hampden with the dial pushed toward salt, heat and straight-line ester intensity rather than roundness, dry and powerful throughout. A loud, uncompromising funk bomb for drinkers who want their Hampden as forceful as it comes.