1998 The Colours of Rum HD 23 Year Old Edition No. 7 Cask Strength Jamaica Rum (700ml)

At the estery, full-bodied end of the spectrum, this Hampden offers dried fruits galore. Even though a bittersweetness restrains the sugars, there are bursts of ginger cake, unripe banana, papaya and fruit slice mixed up with dry molasses, rounded off by a sooty, sulphury, char grill and liquorice root character that ends on a fascinating metallic note. It's a dense and layered expression that also boasts outstanding persistence. Pot distilled and continentally matured in an ex-rum barrel yielding 247 bottles. 58.7% Alc./Vol. Non chill filtered. Tasted from a 20ml sample.

Other reviews... The marque here was 'HLCF', that's 500-700 gr esters per HLPA. Medium at Hampden, huge almost anywhere else! Colour: white wine. Nose: I'm not sure you can beat these olives, chalk, samphires, model glue and overripe bananas. With water: new bicycle inner tube, retsina, perhaps fennel seeds, capers. Mouth (neat): perhaps a notch sweeter than others, perhaps a tad heavier on tar and salty chutneys as well, it's even a tad shochu-y, in a way, it should go well with fatty meats and some cheeses, such as our beloved comté. Or with Moroccan garlic and pil-pil prawns (aren't we hungry now?) With water: this one will definitely work wonders with spicy food. Finish: very long, sublimely liquoricy and salty. Logically, there's a lot of salty liquorice in the aftertaste. Comments: there are many tinier flavours and aromas that we haven't even mentioned. Desert island dram, as they say on the continent. 91 points - whiskyfun.com