Overview
Brand: Hampden Estate
Origin: Hampden Estate, Wakefield, Trelawny Parish, Jamaica
Still: Pot
Age: 5 years
Finish: ex-Bourbon
ABV: 47%
I love single-marque releases– they allow one to have direct access to the tools that distilleries' blenders use to create the rums we love. It's fun to have a peak behind the curtain, try these singular rums, then go back and visit a blend to see if you can pick out the individual notes.
Like Hampden Estate 2010 LROK, Hampden Estate The Younger is a bottling of the producer's LROK marque. Although the range of esters of LROK spans 200-400 g/hLAA, the front label of this rum specifically states that this contains 314.8 g/hLAA of esters, edging towards the higher end of the spectrum.
As the name implies, The Younger has a younger age statement than 2010 LROK's 11 years, instead clocking in at 5 years of tropical maturation in ex-bourbon casks. This was also distilled via Hampden's double retort pot still, and bottled at 47% ABV.
Appearance
Pale gold, high clarity, medium-low viscosity
Nose
Grilled and/or rotting fruit salad (pineapples, strawberries, kiwi, green grapes, mango), underripe pear, wood varnish, fresh dough, crumbled blue cheese
Palate
Grilled pineapple, toasted coconut, starfruit, canned peaches, sour grapes, plain cream cheese
Finish
Medium, fruity, warming, dry; grilled pineapple, blueberries, underripe bananas, honey, underripe green grapes
Rating: 6/10
Summary
LROK The Younger is a great addition to the Hampden lineup, and lets the youthful notes from this mid-ester marque shine in the glass. The nose and palate are plenty funky, offering a light but pungent slate of tropical fruit notes, among others.
In the glass, LROK The Younger is a pale gold color, with high clarity and medium-low viscosity.
Nosing the rum, I get grilled or rotting fruit salad notes– pineapples, strawberries, kiwi, green grapes, and mango– to start. Further trips to the glass yield sharp underripe pear, industrially-funky wood varnish, and fresh pastry dough. At some points, I get the notes of crumbled blue cheese.
Grilled pineapple leads the palate, followed by nutty coconut, then tropical starfruit. Canned peaches in syrup come through in the mid-palate, which leads to sour green grapes. Cream cheese is the final note I get from this, which is odd in the big picture; I've gotten this from other funky rums, and with the blue cheese aroma on the nose, there's something that draws my mind to dairy in some of these esters.
The finish is medium length, fruity, warming, and dry. Notes of grilled pineapple, blueberries, underripe banana, sweet honey, and sour underripe green grapes come through in the final moments.
This is a great release, and I hope that its success proves that people want more of these specialized, single-marque rums. With the relatively recent release of Hampden's 8 Marks Collection, it seems like the trends are being felt by at least Hampden. While that may be harder to get your hands on, LROK The Younger may provide many with the opportunity to try this unique marque in the meantime.