William Hinton Rum 6 Anos. William Hinton are a rum brand from the Portuguese island of Madeira. I’ve covered a few brands and rums from Madeira but not William Hinton. Which was a bit of a surprise when I came to review this particular rum.

I honestly thought I had reviewed at least one William Hinton rum! Anyway, lets give you a little bit of information on the William Hinton brand. Despite only recently coming to more global attention – perhaps due to the general rise in interest in Agricole Rhum, rum was been produced on Madeira for hundreds of years. Indeed the cultivation of Sugar Cane has been a key part of the islands economy for many years and has increased considerably in recent times.

Now the original distillery which was set up by William Hinton first began producing rum way back in 1845. In 1986 the facility closed down. In 2006 partly due to the increase in sugar production, on the island, the distillery Engenho Novo da Madeira was restored and production of William Hinton branded rhum began.

Now Rum da Agricola Madeira is a protected term under a Geographical Indicator (GI) Under a EU ruling. This has been officially recognised since 2011 so they can refer to their rum as “Agricole”. The rums in the William Hinton brand are produced from Fresh Estate grown Sugar Cane Juice/Honey (they refer to it as honey). They do tend to use the term rum even though to most what they produce is more in keeping with what you might expect of a rhum.

Engenho Novo da Madeira produce their rhum on a Centennial Column still which was restored by Fabrico do Torreao in 1969. This still was re-built again in 2006 and is used to produce William Hinton rhum. The still is a Continuous Column Copper Still, with eight rectification plates. There is quite a lot of information on fermentation, varieties of sugar cane used etc to be found on the William Hinton website. It’s a shame they didn’t share quite so much detail about this bottling. The information provided as you will see if you look is pretty minimal.

I did think Simon over at Rum Shop Boy had reviewed this particular rum but on viewing his site he had only reviewed some of the Limited Edition Cask Finish 6 Year Old’s not this particular bottling. I struggled to find any other reviews anywhere for this particular bottling.

In the UK you can find a 70cl bottle of this rhum, which has been bottled at 40% ABV for £69.95 at Master of Malt. It is here where I find out a little more information on the rhum. It has been aged for 6 years in a mixture of (wait for it) ex- Port casks, Madeira casks, Bourbon, Sherry and Brandy casks. The time spent in each I have no idea about. I’m guessing the rums are aged seperately in the various casks before being blended together at some stage but I could be completely wrong about that. There are any number of ways the rums or rum in the blend could have been aged!

Presentation wise this William Hinton Rum 6 Anos is more in keeping with the “standard” William Hinton line up rather than the numerous Cask Finish 6 Anos releases. As a result it comes in a 3/4 size stubby bottle with a short neck and a tapered body to the bottle.

The rum is presented with the standard William Hinton branding. It is worth noting they do not make as much of a play on the Agricola da Madeira denomination as others. I think this is partly to try and fit in more with the molasses dominated international market. Despite the increasing popularity in Agricole and Cane Juice based rhums they still account for a very small part of the international market when compared to all molasses based rum.

I’ll save further details and background for another time. I’m sure you don’t want to read the same introduction every time I review a William Hinton rum.

So lets move on to the tasting of this rum.

In the glass William Hinton 6 Anos Limited Edition is a medium to dark brown colour. It is certainly not quite as dark as the Rum 970 Reserva 6 Anos, I reviewed a while back. Bearing in mind some of the casks this rum has been aged in, I might have expected a darker hue.

The nose is rich and warming. Notes of raisins, plums and some juicy sultanas. There are hints of orange peel and some Christmas Cake notes. You can tell it has been aged in fortified wine casks of various descriptions. Fortunately they do not dominate the way some rums (which are perhaps aged in rather wet casks) do.

As a result you still get the distinctive Madeiran Agricole notes of Olive, seaweed and a touch of brine. This complexity is further enhanced by a nice weight of oak spices and some zesty ginger and lime.

Madeiran Aged Agricole is a more approachable easier route to Agricole for someone coming from a Molasses only experience. This I think is partly due to some of the fortified wine casks often used in ageing. Which in part notes more familiar to molasses rum drinkers. That’s my theory anyway, feel free to disagree.

William Hinton Rum 6 Anos is a little drier on the palate than I was expecting and not quite as sweet as the nose might leave you to believe. It has a nice slightly bitter entry with quite a lot of red wine like notes. It’s still rich but with less sweetness. The fruitiness is now more along the lines of stoned fruits such as blackcurrants and under ripe red plums. You could say the fruitiness is a little dried out.

The mid palate is lighter than the initial entry and the mouthfeel becomes much less bitter. Notes of orange peel and clementines take over on the mid palate. Just at the right time to give a really nice balance to this rum.

There is an ever so slight savoury note to this of black olives but nothing I would class as grassy like you might find with “French” Agricole Rhum.

Finish wise William Hinton Rum 6 Anos delivers a reasonably long and very pleasant fade out of stoned fruits, oak spices and some nice red wine notes. It is a good length even at 40% ABV.

All in all this will make a very good introduction to anyone new to the William Hinton line up. Indeed, its a good introduction to Rum Agricola da Madeira in general. If you visit Madeira it is worth visiting Blandy’s Wine Lodge in the captial of Funchal. As well as doing a ageing house tour you can buy the William Hinton range in the shop next door. I would also recommend looking for the various packs of miniatures available in most of the small supermarkets in Funchal. You can obtain a good number of Madeiran Agricoles without breaking the bank.