“I hate New Year’s Eve, it’s when even the amateurs drink”. These are famous words from a famous German alcoholic actor. M.E. Bellows’ Son Jamaica 1834 (40%): A special one and one of the oldest Rums (by vintage) I have ever tasted. Nose: Despite the low abv, the Rum is very dense and aromatic. At…
Category: Jamaica
A few Hampdens
It has been a while. My apologies! RomDeLuxe Hampden “LROK” 2020 2YO (61,4%): A two year old LROK!? I am not sure if we need this but let’s taste it first! Nose: Lots of fruits such as pineapple, banana, strawberry but also honey, macadamia and many more. Something is odd here so I had to…
Hampden Time
After struggling with an illness for the last couple of days we are back with a few interesting Hampdens waiting on my table. The Whisky Jury Hampden 2012 10YO (58,4%): This should be “OWH”. Nose: Clearly Jamaican but not necessarily Hampden, I think that describes it quite well. This nutty profile profile is much closer…
Some Long Ponds
A brief Long Pond session with a few samples I wanted to try. Plantation Long Pond “VRW” 2009 12YO ‘Luxembourgish Cask Selection’ Spanish Orange Wine Cask (53%): The wine finishes can be nice, but don’t have to be. Nose: Very lovely with beautiful floral notes, sweet yellow stone fruits (think peach and apricot), vanilla, honey,…
Hampden 8 Marks Collection
When the Hampden 8 Marks Collection came out in 2022, it created a lot of buzz. After all, it was the first time that a distillery offered a cross-tasting of all its marques in a single set for regular purchase. So what is it? Marks or marques? We’ve learned, also directly from Hampden, that these…
Monymusk 2015: EMB vs MMW
We are having two young Monymusks from 2015 today. The difference? The wear different marques and aged in different climatic zones. S.B.S Monymusk “EMB” 2015 7YO (65,7%): To paraphrase a buddy of mine “you can always buy EMB” and I think I can agree. But here we do not know (yet). This almost entirely aged…
Long Pond, 2000s
A nice little Long Pond triple from the 2000s today. Isla del Ron 2008 12YO (59,1%): Isla del Ron had an amazing Long Pond with the 1982 in the past, so let’s hope that was more than merely a lucky selection. Nose: Esters en masse. Nail polish remover, pineapple, ripe banana, you name it. In…
Hampden: 2016 vs 2013
There have been so many Hampden bottlings lately which makes it incredibly hard to keep track and I must say that I kinda enjoy these two by two sessions where we compare two different vintages to get an idea of the bigger picture and then two bottlings within a single vintage to get a feel…
Long Pond STC<3E
STC<3E is love, or so I thought. Not only because of the heart. Now we didn’t review the first joint Velier & NRJ STC<3E bottling on this blog (we did do that somewhere else, but these notes seem to be gone) but it was great, as was an unaged Rum with this marque. Anyway, there’s…
Rest & Be Thankful – Long Pond
Last time we’ve had Rest & Be Thankful’s selections from Monymusk. Today, Long Pond is on the agenda, the only other Rum distillery released by the bottler so far. The explanation for why they have decided to bottle Jamaican Rums only is simple: There’s another place called Rest & Be Thankful in Jamaica – see…
Rest & Be Thankful – Monymusk
We are back from our small summer break. Please excuse that we didn’t have any material for you in the meantime but getting older and having increased family duties means that we are having way less time for our hobby compared to when we started this blog more than six years ago… time flies my…
Single Cask Rum 