Hampden Estate HGML 2017 Single Barrel (Astor Exclusive)
Reviewer: Pickwick (with notes from Tashtego)
Distillery: Hampden Estate
Origin: Trelawny Parish, Jamaica
Bottle Size: 700 ml
Bottle Count: 285
ABV: 73.4%
Distilled: 2017
Base Material: Molasses
Still: Pot
Aging specs: Aged in an ex-bourbon cask at the distillery
Bottled: 2025
Nose: Charred pineapple, ketchup, barbecue
Palate: Pineapple candy, plum, wintergreen, Thai basil
Finish: Honey, barbecue smoke, mint, plum
HGML has the reputation of being one of the rarest of Hampden’s eight main marks and arguably the best. It’s also basically the mark that got me into Hampden in the first place - the 2022 Great House bottling, the first Hampden rum I ever owned, is 74% three-year-old HGML. It’s almost unfair for that to be one’s entry to Hampden, because having that much HGML in a single bottle is tough to come by. Aside from a much smaller percentage in the 2024 Great House and the two 8 Marks sets, HGML has been largely restricted to a handful of very hard to come by single-mark bottlings, most of which didn’t even get American releases.
That all changed earlier this year when New York City’s Astor Wines and Spirits brought out an “exclusive select” store pick bottling that on paper was absolutely eye-popping: eight-year HGML? Aged at origin? Bottled at 73.4%???? The price is similarly eye-popping, but then why shouldn’t it be? This is rare stuff and heck, at the bottled strength you could easily stretch it.
Quite frankly, though, for my money this bottle drinks well below its proof. It’s pretty unlike most Hampdens I’ve had - there’s plenty of the expected pineapple, of course, but the ketchup and barbecue notes on the nose put me in mind of something a lot wilder, like a Haitian clairin. That barbecue note doesn’t fully carry over to the palate, which starts with loads of sweet pineapple candy and stone fruit, then segues into fresh herbs, but it returns on the finish, where a whiff of smoke lingers along with sweet honeyed notes and more herbs.
This is neither quite a classic Hampden nor one of the absolute best I’ve had, and I would call it slightly challenging unless you’re a massive ester fanboy, so I’m going to give it a 4 on the Taste scale. But don’t mistake me here: this is an excellent rum and one to drink slowly. (At 73.4% you’d better drink it slowly, really.) For that reason it also rates a 4 on the Haste scale - especially if you already know you like Hampden, it’s definitely worth hopping on the Astor website and shipping it to yourself, assuming you live in a state they ship to. (And if you don’t it’s worth trying to figure it out.) Even at $300 I think this is a good value pickup for what it’s delivering. You may not have that many more chances to get a single cask bottle of tropically-aged single-mark HGML in your lifetime!
Taste/Haste Scale: 4 / 4
