Purchased 27/08/22 from Tyndrum Whisky. Total cost £82.00 (free shipping).

Out with the younger, in with the cru. Following on from Hampden’s LROK The Younger and 2010 releases is their first rum which has been aged exclusively in sherry casks. Pagos is a Spanish word which describes an area of vineyards which share similar characteristics such as soil and climate. Essentially a very similar meaning to the word terrior (a French word which has become a bit of a buzz word in the unaged rum world).

In a recent interview Luca Gargano expressed that Pagos is the start of a new direction for Hampden and a step towards a higher prestige which is currently afforded to whisky brands like Macallan. Even to the extent of a slight rebrand to ‘The’ Hampden on their Great House releases, the addition of a determiner making it more of a statement than a brand name.

It is not unusual for spirits to be aged in ex sherry casks, there was a time when sherry casks were left discarded in British docks by departing Spanish ships who were looking to lighten the load for the journey home. These were then picked up by Scottish whisky distilleries and put to good use. What is slightly unusual about the casks used for the Pagos bottling is that they are actual ex sherry casks as opposed to casks made by sherry companies specifically for the purpose of distilleries using them to age spirits, which is what the vast majority of sherry aged spirits are housed in.

One thing which I’m sure will be a recurring theme in this blog is my admiration of Velier’s labelling and general bottle presentation. I feel like Gargano’s influence can be seen all over this bottle and it looks all the better for it. I’m generally not a fan of bottles coming in boxes, I always think they’re rather unnecessary but this is certainly an exception. Having an exact image of the bottle inside the box, printed on the outside of the box is pure genius. There is also quite a lot of information on there to satisfy our ever greater desire to know exactly what is in the bottle we are drinking from. Some information which isn’t included on the label is the amount of bottles which were produced. I believe this number is 1200 plus the small bottles if you are lucky enough to be on the mailing list for those, I am still waiting to be added and I expect I might be for the rest of my life. Those numbers make this bottling fairly rare but I do believe that this is going to be a recurring release from Hampden albeit with a slight change to the brand of casks used in the future. Another piece of information which is omitted is the marque. I’m not sure if it fits into a marque perfectly but it seems to be closest to LROK, albeit at the top end.

In the glass this is a beautiful looking rum. It has a lovely ruby tint to it and looks much darker than your average three year old but this is to be expected due to both the type of cask and having been tropically aged. It certainly has the look of a premium spirit and it has achieved this the hard way with no added colourings.

The nose is up there with the best I have experienced. There is so much going on. It is unmistakably a Hampden rum and the familiar overripe fruit hits you straight away but this leads you on to a much warmer mustier place which is like somebody had baked a dark fruit crumble on an open fire in an old library.

This is all very much mirrored in the taste. It’s Hampden but not as we know it. It’s like Hampden has retired on a good pension and put on its slippers and has decided to enjoy the finer things in life.

Another really enjoyable rum from this distiller. LROK the younger was one of my favourite rum releases of 2022 and this is another to add to the list. I’m not sure if there are still any bottles of this going at retail prices but a number seem to be popping up on Rum Auctioneer and don’t seem to be going for crazy prices. I am pacing myself with this one as I’d like to be able to compare it to the next release and see how the ongoing line of sherried rums from Hampden compare to this prototype.

Bought 10th December 2022 from Royal Mile Whiskies for £71.95

It’s St Patrick’s Day and Irish eyes are smiling! I bought this bottle a few months back and have been very gradually working my way through it.

I’d say that my rum journey started in St Lucia. I went there on holiday as a young man with my brother and his then girlfriend (now wife) and my then girlfriend (now ex girlfriend). Before going to the Caribbean I knew of rum but this trip really threw me in at the deep end. Rum punch was being served everywhere you looked and I bought my first bottle of rum there, a bottle of Bounty which I still own to this day.

The box and the bottle are beautifully presented. With the box including a fair amount of information about the rum’s namesake, Admiral Rodney and also some information about the rum. The rum has been aged in the valley for 11 tropical years before being moved to ex Irish whiskey casks for another 9 months.

In the glass it is a colour which is something between ruby and bronze. It really is a beautiful looking rum. I have no reason to believe that anything has been added to this rum to make it look like this, it just looks very well aged.

The nose straight after the pour is quite spicy and you get a lot of the alcohol coming through, especially considering it isn’t the highest abv. After it has been left a while in the glass it mellows out quite a lot and the whisky notes start to come through.

This tastes like a very well developed and flavourful column still rum. It doesn’t feel like any corners have been cut in it’s production. Similar to the nose you get a lot more after leaving it to sit for a while. My first impression was that it has a number of similarities to a Foursquare ECS but I poured a glass of Foursquare 2010 for comparison and it wasn’t as close as I’d first thought. Admittedly it may have been another ECS bottling that had stuck in my memory or maybe just the general result of an established distiller experimenting with different vintages and casks.

I haven’t seen this particular rum reviewed anywhere else but if you’re looking for an overview of the current state of St Lucian rum then I would definitely recommend this episode of Rumcast, I found it to be a really enjoyable listen and it certainly filled me of enthusiasm for future releases from this distillery.

Purchased 29/07/22 from Royal Mile Whiskies. Total cost £83.95 (including tax, postage and drammers reward)

Hard to find. How many bottles? Might know one day. Much less than Indelible that’s for sure. Local shop in Europe only got 5, big name website in England 10. Royal Mile Whisky, a fitting supplier. Drammers reward, brilliant idea. Regulated rum. Sovereignty. Great name, great occasion. Nelson statue turned around. American marches sparked a flame. Nothing as powerful as an idea who’s time has come. Statue gone. Awkward royal visit. Arab spring, Caribbean autumn. Drink to celebrate. My surname scribbled next to my prisoner number. Read the label like an album cover, remember them? Warm smile. Fitting font, lobster purple. High abv, pour and leave for 30 minutes. Takes discipline. Just one sip, leave the rest for 30. Warm chest. Strong stuff, very dry. Condensed Glendronach. Favourite whisky. Not favourite ECS? Time is a healer. Left in the bottle for 6 days. Better. Which one of us changed in those six days, maybe both? Another 11 days, 17 in total. Late night tasting aboard a prison ship. Much better, definitely the drink. Lovely stuff. Drink fit for a king. King Richard.