This high-ester installment in Hampden's annual Great House series is aggressively packed with flavor. Overripe fruits dominate, with spice, vinegar, and vegetal notes in the background.

Started in 2019 with annual releases since, 2022 is the Hampden Great House line’s fourth member. It’s a very flavorful, funky molasses based pot still rum bottled at 55% ABV, and while we don’t actually know that much about it (age, etc), Hampden has said the 2022 is “a blend of medium and high ester marks, revealing a lively and intense profile that lingers on endlessly with white fruits and floral notes.” According to a Memphis Rum Club review it’s specifically 73.5% HGML and 26.5% LFCH (Hampden’s 3rd and 7th highest ester marques respectively).

We measured a density of 0.915g/cc and a refractive index of 1.3602, indicating no added sugar (duh) though interestingly there’s no “no additives” label on the bottle.

If you’re familiar with Hampden and the Great House line the nose won’t be too surprising; if not: buckle up. Before any particular note you notice how much aroma it’s generating for it’s relatively modest 55% ABV. It’s ester-y, with overripe banana, pineapple, and a meaningful whiff of apple cider vinegar. If you linger on the nose you might get a bit of something cask-y, but it’s very clearly playing a supporting role. The palate is intense; it’s the kind of palate that makes you think “Why was I calling other rums fruity? This is actually fruity!” The note that sticks out for me is berry: mostly blueberry but a bit of blackberry as well. The banana and pineapple stick around, and then of course things get a bit weird: there are some vegetal notes that first feel celery-adjacent, but begin to tend a bit brine-y seaweed. The finish is solid and decently strong, but compared to the nose and palate it’s comparative mild; a lot of the strong back notes you’d expect from heavy cask influence aren’t there, lending credibility to the theory this is an overall young rum. The finish that is there works well with its overall profile: fruity, tangy, funky, and then a touch of that “I just had a Port Mourant and now my breath smells bad” note.

In our blind taste test we thought it was great as a neat sipper (8.2/10) and down right incredible as a mixer (9.3/10). Normally when a pricy limited release bottle gets a high mixer score my response is “obviously, it’s a good rum, and it’s not hard to taste good mixed with lime juice and sugar”. But Great House 2022 scored pretty well as a neat sipper, and it scored really well as a mixer. That along with the fact that it’s usually expensive but not crazy expensive leads me to consider this might be an ideal special occasion cocktail constituent for recipes that call for a funk-forward aged Jamaican. This case is bolstered by the fact that (for me) the 2022 is really at the upper limit intensity-wise of what’s pleasant to sip neat, and near the upper limit of the Great House line itself: for reference the primary marque in 2023 is LROK which ester content is between 200 and 400 gr/HLPA, compared with the HGML in 2022 which clocks in between 100 and 1100 gr/HLPA. I do enjoy it neat, but it’s an aggressive experience. If you’re always trying to crank the ester dial up to eleven, this is a really well executed expression that won’t disappoint.

 

The Superficial: The Great House bottles are classy; from year to year the design remains pretty consistent, just switched to a different color, which gives a nice sense of cohesion. There’s remarkably little information on the bottle (shockingly, this one get a 5.6/10 for transparency), and there isn’t a lot about this bottle that is exciting, but there’s nothing in the bottle that stands in the way of this expression feeling really special.