For its third edition, the Magnum Series sets sail for Trelawny Parish, Jamaica, into the atmospheric heart of the Hampden Estate distillery. Each year, La Maison du Whisky and its Italian partner, Velier, invite a Magnum Photos photographer to capture the soul of a distillery through a week-long creative immersion. For Series #3, Spanish photographer, Cristina De Middel explored Hampden’s maze of fermenters, pipework, overgrown facades and humidity-soaked rooms, transforming these raw spaces into surreal, cinematic compositions. Four of her photographs illustrate the labels of this new collection of rums, distilled between 2016 and 2021 across a variety of Hampden marks. The Hampden 8 Years Old 2017 <>H marks the second step in the series’ ascension through increasingly high ester levels. <>H (Diamond H) is characterised by an ester range of 900 – 1,000 g/hlpa, placing it firmly in the realm of powerful yet refined high-ester rums. This expression delivers a vibrant, textured succession of flavour sequences: florals, ripe fruit, minerals, empyreumatic notes, spices and vanilla unfolding in gripping alternation, each more expressive than the last. Despite its undeniable power, the rum remains remarkably well-balanced, revealing the Hampden watermark with striking finesse. Founded in the mid-18th century and operating continuously since 1753, Hampden Estate is one of Jamaica’s oldest and most revered rum producers. Known for its long, wild natural fermentations and tradition pot still distillation, Hampden crafts some of the world’s most aromatic, high-ester rums. Each mark expresses a distinct facet of Trelawny’s fermentation culture, and <>H stands as a bold, beautifully structured expression of Hampden’s signature intensity, shaped by terroir, history and time.
