CoR Hampden Ed. 4 1992

The Colours of Rum, the Polish purist house, bottled this Hampden as its fourth edition, distilled in 1992 and aged 29 years mostly in cooler continental conditions. Hampden is the high-ester benchmark, but this much continental age turns the usual fireworks into something measured and elegant.

Distilled from molasses on a double-retort pot still and matured in ex-bourbon wood, it offers pineapple, ripe yellow tropical fruit and lighter esters on the nose, then tropical fruit, pineapple and banana over black tea and herbs, finishing on mango, oak and a dry edge. Bottled at 58.2% and unsweetened, it shows more wood and less raw funk than a tropical Hampden of similar billing, the acidity reined in and the oak well integrated. This is a sipping Hampden for drinkers who want the distillery's fruit in a smoother, more contemplative frame rather than at full solvent intensity.