Rum, Jamaica. Distillery operational. Owner: Everglades Farms Ltd.

Independent & family-ownedKnown primarily in the rum, perfume and food industries, Hampden began to move out of the shadows in 2009 when the Jamaican government decided to disinvest from the national Jamaica Sugar Company and auctioned off its assets. The family-owned company Everglades Farms Ltd (owned by the Hussey family) secured the lot and became the owner of this gem which is now considered the alter ego of the Scottish distillery Ardbeg. This link with Scotland is no coincidence. Hampden Estate was bought in 1748 by Robert Stirling, who had left Perthshire (Scotland) in 1742. The Hussey family sells two expressions of its rum, including an Overproof which is particularly well-known in the bar and HORECA segment. But it was in 2017, when family-owned Italian (Velier) and French (LMDW) companies began distributing the first old rums, that Hampden really took off, rising to the ranks of the finest rums currently on the market.

A Jamaican rum distilled in 1990 and bottled in 2013 by Rum Nation after 23 years’’ ageing. Rum Nation is an Italian independent bottler created in 1999 by Fabio Rossi, who had worked in the family wine and spirits import business founded by his father in 1956. During his trips to Scotland, he was impressed by various casks of rum from Jamaica and Guyana and wanted to offer them to the public. With the valuable advice of Silvano Samaroli, he launched Rum Nation and began travelling the Caribbean. After initial maturation at the production site, the rums selected then continue maturation in Europe, in a more temperate climate, sometimes in sherry or Spanish brandy casks. Rum Nation tries to keep the spirit of the country of origin, reflected in the presence of a stamp from the country on the label, which Fabio has collected since he was a child. Rossi is also behind the independent bottler Wilson & Morgan, which specializes in whisky.