2007er Smögen Kingshaven HAMPDEN Rum - Sherry Cask Finish - 15 years old

distilled 2007 - bottled 2022
Premium Single Cask Rum
Hampden Distillery, Jamaica
Sherry Cask Finish
C <>H
cask strength
natural colour - non chill-filtered
exlusively bottled for Smögen Whisky
62% vol. - 0,5 l

Hampden 15 yo 'C<>H' (62%, Kinghaven, sherry finish, 2022) Four stars and a half
Kinghaven is a brand by Smögen, the small albeit very valiant Swedish Distillery. If they have decided to finish some Hampden in sherry, there must have been a reason, beyond the fact that they were having some empty sherry cask at hand. Oh and remember what we've learnt, C diamond H means extremely high esters… Colour: gold. Nose: right, the sherry was anecdotal, or was it some manzanilla? What it's got is rather some camphor and pine resins, beyond the smoky and tarry olives and all the crazy varnishes. With water: massive oliveness. It's all about olives, really, with an acetic side. But now that we've learnt that they're adding some cane juice vinegar to the molasses, nothing surprises me anymore. Great nose. Mouth (neat): well, smoked olives perhaps? Surely some high-concentration tarry grassiness, crushed olives, stone dusts, ashes, vinegars, green walnuts, some mad nocino liqueur… With water: pure high-ester Hampden, with just a piney side. A piney side from a sherry cask? Why not! Finish: very long, a tad waxier and with some lemon marmalade. Really. Comments: pretty experimental, with emphasis on the 'mental' part of that word. A joyous, rather extreme concoction by Smögen, top rung for sure but it's like mortadella, we don't actually wanna know how they made it. Remember these are the folks who are also making surströmming (okay, I owe you a beer, Pär).
SGP:563 - 89 points.