Hampden 1998 Alambic Classique 20 Year Old

The Hampden Estate was founded in 1753 by a Scotsman called Archibald Sterling, in the Queen of Spain valley of Jamaica’s Trelawny parish. For 250 years it remained family owned, selling rum to third-party blenders and independent bottlers. Mismanagement however meant that by 2003 it was in financial trouble, with the Jamaican government stepping in to assume ownership and some of its debt in order to preserve the jobs of its employees. They sold it in 2009 to the Hussey family’s Everglades Farms, who as first point of business began laying down the casks that would eventually become the first Hampden Estate labelled official bottling of the distillery’s rum, launched in collaboration with Velier in 2018. Famed for its heavy, ester-driven style, Hampden is joined by Worthy Park as the only two Jamaican distilleries that produce exclusively pure single rums (using only pot stills). It currently has four pot stills: two from Forsyths in Scotland, one from Vendome in Kentucky, and another from T&T Engineering in South Africa.

This rum was distilled in 1998 and laid to rest in single cask #18404 for 20 years before being bottled in 2018. One of 216 bottles.

Alambic Classique are a German wholesaler and importer based in Bad Wörishofen, Germany. Established in 1981, the company deals in speciality spirts including whisky, rum, cognac, armagnac and more. The company started bottling its own brands in 2005. Single malts from Ben Nevis and Ledaig have always been firm favourites, and the portfolio also includes Single Cask, Small Batch, Double-Matured and Very Old vintage bottlings from many different distilleries. A lesser known bottler, Alambic Classique have targeted specialist retailers and small restaurants to represent their releases, which over the years has made them difficult to come by.