Hampden Great House 2024 v. Zind-Humbrecht Fine d'Alsace '98-'02-'03 (Amateur Spirit)

We've already done reviews of Hampden's yearly Great House releases up against other rums, and other Hampdens, and other Great Houses (see    • Hampden Great House Rum 2020 review (guest...   and    • Hampden Great House 2021, versus LROK 2010...   and    • Hampden Great House 2022 review (versus Go...   and oh also    • 3 Hampdens + Many Feelings: Pagos, Great H...   for good measure). It seems, therefore, like it might well be time to give this series another challenge.

You see, I regard Hampden Estate in Trelawny Parish as pretty much the best distillery at scale on the planet. They've been making rum since the 1750s but never bottled and sold the stuff themself until the glorious sub-$30 unaged powerhouse Rum Fire (2011). And then, since the official "Hampden Estate" range started around 2018, they've been absolutely crushing it in pretty much every category - budget to premium, unaged to super-oaky. Yes, prices have been going up but never out of scale with quality, and even the arguable missteps (say, Pagos and that 10yo LROK) are better than most distilleries' successes, and we're not even counting the typically excellent independent bottlings. It's hard to think of anyone else who comes close.

Unless you go smaller. Because Hampden, for all its inarguable greatness, doesn't have the highest score on this channel; that score, a 94, goes to the tiny distilling arm of Alsatian wine house Zind-Humbrecht (go watch    • A Zind-Humbrecht Trio: Marc de Gewürztrami...   ). Their unaged stuff is phenomenal, their aged stuff is genuinely mindblowing, and you'll never see more than a few hundred bottles come out every year. If Hampden has competition, this is it.

So that's today's flight: the new Great House (from a sample bottle that included many nifty stickers) versus a multi-vintage single-site Pinot Noir brandy from Z-H, bottled by the fine folks at Amateur Spirit (although be aware, they may not have drained this entire barrel: https://amateurspirit.com/?product=zi... ). Off we go:

Zind-Humbrecht 1998-2002-2003 21 Year Old Fine d’Alsace (Turckheim, Alsace, bottled by Amateur Spirit; distilled from pinot noir from the Heimbourg vineyard, aged in a single new oak cask; 57% ABV), 92+/100
Hampden Great House Distillery Edition 2024 Old Single Jamaican Rum (Wakefield, Trelawny; pot distilled molasses, 50% LFCH 2021, 20% LFCH 2020, 15% HGML 2018, 15% DOK 2021; 57% ABV), 91/100

I'm happy to report that after (IMHO) a slight dip in quality for 2023, the 2024 Great House is back to greatness. We're nowhere near the estery craziness of the 2022 release - in fact the esters from the higher marks are pretty well hidden until you throw some water in - but it's not as woody nor as "easy drinking" as 2020 nor 2023. It's reminiscent of a more subtle and (dare I say) more intellectual 2021, if anything. I love it, absolutely worth a grab if you're a Hampden maniac.

But the Z-H - albeit much older and a bit more expensive, not to mention more of a pain in the ass to get ahold of - is quite simply on another level. It's a tone poem of flowers and fruit and wood that gets even better with water and will cling to your palate for hours. It's one of the best things I've tasted this year, and somewhere a high ester rum fan and a Borderies cognac fan have finally found something they can agree on.

Extra special thanks to my Different Spirits on Patreon (  / differentspirits  ) -

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