Background: Remember when I said this was (likely) to be the most epic matchup I will ever post? Well, I might just have another think coming, because today, two of my most anticipated bottlings of Hampden rum will pit their wits against each other. Neither of these have that much of a reputation: it is nigh-impossible to find the reviews of one of them (the Thompson Bros), and nigh-impossible to find a bottle of the other one. However, my expectations for them are sky-high, due to Thompson Bros having bottled my favourite LROK, and due to BAT’s review of the Nobilis. Without further ado, let’s see how they fare in the ring.

Name: Nobilis Jamaica HD (Hampden) 1993 (27 years)

Nose: extremely expressive and intense, becoming of its 65.8% a.b.v. -- there might as well be fumes billowing out of the glass; crystallised pineapple and mango, followed by their grilled versions, over a wood fire; calamansi juice; Chinese white vinegar; sweat-drenched clothes left to dry overnight; concentrated urine; tamarind; five spice powder; cumin; curry leaves; fresh herbs, the likes of parsley and oregano; a cornucopia of old cheeses, most notably comte and parmesan; Greek yoghurt; namkeen lassi; sourdough bread; rice crackers; fried glutinous rice cakes; shortbread biscuit; bread-and-butter pudding; fried coconut flakes with gula melaka, to a heavy char; motor oil; WD-40; exhaust fumes; tar; freshly cut branches and clippings; an earthy and sour funk acts as a throughline for the base notes; hae bee hiam; salted fish and vegetables; shime saba; canned tuna; olive tapenade; petrichor; wet plaster; sawdust; leaf compost, ground meat and manure, doused in rancid cooking oil, then set on fire; a cocktail of two parts seawater and one part paint thinner; the core is essentially similar to that of my benchmark Hampden, just not as all-encompassing, dense and rigid.

Palate: thick and syrupy; overripe mango and papaya, in cordial form; rotting pineapple; balsamic vinegar; lemon rind; baked alaska; vanilla ice-cream with grated parmesan; a top-notch dry junmai genshu; LPG odorant; car engine coolant; flint; black and green olives; seawater; Tabasco sauce on a freshly shucked Pacific oyster; grilled sardines; pure conched cocoa -- think e.g. Domori Puro; salmiak liquorice; Nin Jiom Pei Pa Koa, a traditional Chinese cough syrup; gingerbread spice cake; maltose; camphor; Vick’s Vapor Rub; fresh clippings; wet wood; assorted seeds, both baked and toasted; green apple lassi; Chartreuse; sarsaparilla drink; grass jelly in sugarcane juice; dough fried in overused cooking oil, then dipped in nutmeg oil, sesame oil, and mayonnaise; smoked meats with herbs and spices, starting with paprika, anise and cloves, followed by coriander and chives; the back-palate is saline, mineral and slightly briny; konbu soup; dirty martini; canned tuna and anchovies, washed down with a bottle of San Pellegrino.

Finish: very long and very intense; carbonated soft drinks such as Kickapoo, Mountain Dew, and Sprite; Pink Dolphin; coconut water; mango lassi; garbage fumes; olive tapenade; smoked hummus; foie gras pate creme brulee; industrial grease; tar; metalworking fluid; burning peat and manure; bags of liquorice sweets; Chinese herbal candy; Chartreuse; grass jelly; cold-brew coffee with sugar; candied tropical fruits accompany the typical <>H notes of forest floor, fresh celery and unsalted baked seeds and nuts in the aftertaste, making the finale more refreshing than dirty; some hyper-aged hard cheese crystals, served with freshly grated ginger on cling wrap, rounds off the aftertaste; the characteristic brininess of C<>H is barely noticeable.

Conclusion: pretty much as formidable as a C<>H gets. Very funky, yet clean at the same time. Perhaps a little too clean for all its power, in my opinion. Compared to the Rumclub bottling, it nearly dispenses with the notes most indicative of ultra-heavy fermentation, notes of solvents and construction materials, both naturally occurring and man-made. As such, it also eschews the opportunity for a lusher and more comprehensive sequence of time-and-place associations. But it compensates with the expressiveness of its nose -- the best I have ever come across -- and the accessibility of its progression of flavours. And even though the weight of the Rumclub in the glass remains unrivalled, this one actually comes close. One of the greatest of all time, in my book.

Score (assuming a normal distribution with mean 50): 95/100

Name: Jamaican Rum JMH 2001 by Thompson Bros and Bar Tre Hiroshima (19 years)

Nose: starts out like an old-school, dirty sherried whisky; aged balsamic vinegar; black grapes and their pomace; stewed apple; yoghurt blended with various kinds of berries and currants; candied tropical fruits; then the creamy, diary side of the rum surfaces; marzipan; kulfi; milk powder; the rinds of grassy and nutty cheeses, including perhaps a very old Comte or Mimolette; a huge hit of minerality and greenness, evocative of being between a mountain spring and a wall of granite, surrounded by a forest, after a heavy rain in the early morning; musty wooden cabinet with rusty iron accents; the barnyard funk of a Springbank distillate -- hay, manure and the whole nine yards; sugarcane-smoked pork ribs; freshly baked pot pies with charred crust; grilled chestnut and sweet potato in a mound of black soil; the base notes are surprisingly fresh; honey lemon lozenges; apple cinnamon flavoured Fisherman’s Friend; stewed apple; a great 50-year-old cognac, and the finesse with which it amalgamates fruitiness and earthy, dirty tertiary notes.

Palate: creamy mouthfeel; sweet tropical fruit (think alphonso mango) yoghurt with toasted seeds and cereal; luo han guo; coffee pork ribs and Marmite chicken, full of wok hei; ginger done two ways -- freshly juiced with apple, and in candy form; American ginseng; bergamot and grapeseed oil; a puree of pomegranate seeds and peel, lightly salted and garnished with fresh, green herbs; gan cao; root beer; maltose; mint chocolate chip ice cream; more fruits come back on the back-palate, to accompany the deeper, darker notes; tangy tropical fruits the likes of starfruit and passion fruit; burrata in lemon juice, drizzled with honey.

Finish: long, but merely average among the high-ester Hampdens; candied mango and crystallised pineapple; custard apple; fruit tart custard; whipped cream; it quickly gets rich, fatty and smoky; sugarcane-smoked pork ribs; lard crisp toasted with cane syrup; highly caramelised char siew; sugarcane juice; tobacco; salty liquorice; burnt caramel; dark chocolate; hazelnut mocha; the aftertaste consists of notes of grass jelly, strong black tea with milk and sugar, tapioca pearls in honey, as well as olive brine infused with mint leaves.

Conclusion: you can probably get a feel of how creamy this is from the notes alone. Thick and mouth-filling, yet exuding an air of refinement. A singular Hampden, and a very, very unique one. Not as obviously powerful as the Nobilis (few things are), but its understated strength is undeniable. I drank a glass of this rum, followed by a long lineup of barrel-proof rums and whiskies -- including among other things, the immense Caol Ila 1978 Intertrade -- over a span of hours, and I was still burping the creamy funk of this at the end of the session. One of the greatest <>H's I have tried, for sure. (Caveat: the "wow" factor is off the charts with this one, considering how much I thought I knew about Hampdens, so I might be quite biased here.)

Score (assuming a normal distribution with mean 50): 93/100

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