Rivers, Great House 2025 and new samples to try!
Made this order 3 weeks ago and it seems delivery was just in time based on recent posts here 😅 apologies to those already fed up of seeing these bottles haha.
First time trying all of these. I I really enjoy Rum Fire and Wray & Nephew, not so experienced with agricole style rums (only had Rhum JM and Clement Canne Bleue) but I thought Rivers just sounded so intense and unique that it was at least worth trying, and yes I recently saw mentioned that it's from cane syrup before anyone corrects me haha. I'd like to try some Clairins too and maybe some Mexican rums, but they're not very available here.
HLCF, Papalin High Ester 5, Hampden 8 and 1753 have all been great so as a treat I went for GH 2025! Also the Hampden 15 sample was well worth 20€ since the whole bottle is out of my budget!
Hampden
These arrived yesterday and first up I did side by side neat pours of GH 2025 and Hampden 15. I sort of regret that because the 15 is such a beautiful rum that my first impression of GH 2025 was it being second best 🙈 still lovely even with the first pour and I definitely get plenty of what I liked from the HLCF Classic. I'm sure as it opens up I'll enjoy it more! But Hampden 15 was delicious, really well integrated and not as overwhelmingly woody as I thought it could have been. Plenty of depth and a lovely long finish. Obviously the aging has toned down the estery notes I've become used to from Hampden but probably one of the best rums I've sipped so far!
Chairman's Reserve
I've almost finished my bottle of 2005 and had intended to get the 2009 and 2011 much sooner but I got sidetracked by some Select Casks (3 for the German market and one from Master of Malt in the UK). Vendome and John Dore expressions are right up there with my favourite rums too, so after those maybe the 2005 and 2011 will feel weak, but I'm still looking forward to trying them all side by side!
Foursquare
Heard excellent reviews for Indomitas but I recently bought Penultimus so thought I'd be fine settling for a sample, along with the Velier High Ester expression that sounds very cool! I'll probably try that against the Velier Mhoba Select White and hope that my palate can handle it 😂 I'll also be ordering the new Probitas/Veritas green label when it's available in Europe!
Berry Bros Guyana
I chose this as my free sample (love Rhum Attitude!) because I've been eyeing up some El Dorado Single Casks and wanted to try something higher than 40% to see how the flavours I like are affected. I probably should've looked into the blend here but I'll most likely get The Whisky Exchange or Berry Bros & Rudd Single Cask El Dorados in the near future.
Overall I'm very excited for some crazy Rivers cocktails and some lovely neat pours 😊 cheers!