Hampden Vintage History (during closure)

Rums around the world Jamaica
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At Barrel-Aged-Thoughts the period of closure of Hampden was narrowed to 2002/2003 through 2009. The only known vintage in this period of closure was the 2007 C<>H, which got a lot of new releases recently. All of those bottlings were continentally aged.

As far as I know, Hampden didn’t do any aging on estate before 2009. I’m not even sure if they filled rum in wooden casks or if they just provided steel tanks to the brokers.

A few days ago we stumbled on the new Old Brother HJF from 2008 which is supposed to be tropically aged.
And there is another release which falls into the period of closure, that is the Rum Shark Hampden 2005

What do you think about these new vintages and how do they impact the known Hampden history? Have there been other “Test Batches” like the 2007 - and why haven’t we seen any until now? Have they actually been aging rum on the estate before 2009? Are those two bottlers mistaking and the rums are actually from another date?

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2

Just some small input regarding tropical ageing while Hampden was closed. If I remember correctly, the Old brothers Hampden 2001 with tropical ageing until 2019 (?) was stored and aged at Appleton.

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ok, that’s interesting. Was it from the same storage as the other tropical-aged Jamaicans as the 1994 New Yarmouth, 1995 Clarendon, etc?

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I don’t know really, but it would make sense to me.

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As far as I know there needs to be an infamous warehouse somewhere on the island.

The latest Nobilis No. 14 HD 2013 8 Years old (<>H) is aged 6 years tropical and only two years continental. I know it doesn´t fall somehow in the timeframe Hampden was closed but tropical aging for Hampdens is happening outside the destillery at least for some barrels.

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