9th rum of advent and today's is from Portugal. I wasn't aware they made rum in Portugal until just now, so this could be quite an eye opening review. Maybe you're from Portugal though and already know all about it. Maybe you make rum in Portugal. Maybe you make this Rum in Portugal. Maybe you're William Hinton. If so I hope you like my review of your rum, sir. Blah blah blah, let's get a move on.
Bit of an intro
William Hinton founded the distillery in 1845, so the chances of him reading this review are quite slim. Over the next forty years Mr. Hinton's distillery became the most important distillery in Madeira. I took that information from the William Hinton website, and I can't help thinking that which distillery was most important in the 1880s is a matter of opinion and that the owners of other distilleries might possibly disagree with them. It feels a bit like me saying the David Tastes Things is the most important blog on the internet. Around the turn of the century they brought in the most up to date equipment they could. I'm guessing it was a steam engine. It reached it's peak of production in 1920 and was processing 600 tons of sugar cane a day. I'm a bit surprised to see that Portugal does actually grow sugar cane. I didn't think they it was tropical enough there, but there you go. You learn something every week. The distillery closed in 1986 but was re-opened in 2006 by the heirs of William Hinton who hoped to restore the rum and sugar production to it's former glory.
I've noticed a bit of a discrepancy between the 3 year old rum on the website and the rum I have. The sample I have says it's from Portugal and has a map showing Portugal on the label. The bottle on the website has an identically designed label except that the map shows the island of Madeira, and they call it Madeiran rum. The distillery is in Madeira and always has been so I'm not sure why this sample says Portugal. My best guess is that they either re designed the label since it was bottled, or that they didn't want to cause any confusion with madeira fortified wine.
40% ABV is the bottling strength here, so I won't be adding much water. So far the best rums have been the strongest ones, which isn't a surprise. Not expecting a huge amount of complexity with this one, but you never know. It's aged thee years in French oak putting it in the VS category, so likely going to have a touch of woody spice flavours, although they haven't given tasting notes. I couldn't find any information about colouring or chill filtering, but I'd be very surprised if there's any colouring in it. You can see in the pic above that it's a very light colour. I think we're done here.
Oh wait, It's made from sugar cane juice, not molasses or sugar cane honey, so likely a lighter, more vegetal rum than others. Rums made from juice are also known as agricole rums, or simply agricole.
Packaging.
You're not going to believe this, but it's another tiny little bottle. Light colour scheme but quite a nice label. Observe:
It's rum
The light colour scheme suggests a light rum. Kind of. The light rum in the bottle is another clue. I like that it says "RUM" in huge letters. This would help differentiate it from the numerous bottle of whisky in my cupboard. They show the age, the brand, the strength, so that'll all good. The only weird thing is that it says it's from Portugal and not Madeira, even though the full sized bottle says Madeira. Bit weird as I've already mentioned. The full bottle has a screw top and not a cork which takes a point or two off for me because I like corks even though it doesn't seem to make a difference to the contents of the bottle. Time to open it.
Smell in bottle
On opening
Very faint superglue.
Coconut.
Soft tropical fruit.
Appearance
It's very light coloured for a rum. I think it's a good thing. You've already seen it in the bottle, but here it is in the glass.
Definitely not wee
The light colour that's very much yellow and doesn't have any of the orangey hue you get from caramel colouring suggests to me that there's no caramel colouring added. It also suggests to me that it's aged in casks that haven't had anything in first. It's aged in French oak, which is typically used to age red things, like wine, port, sherry etc. There's no redness to it so I don't think the casks have been used for that. It's very unlikely to be ex-bourbon casks if they're made from French oak, since it would be a bit of a poor financial decision for a bourbon distillery in the US to import French oak for casks when there's American oak in the same country already.
Neat
Nose
Fruity.
Sour-ish.
Powdery, painty note.
Light.
Hint of light nuttiness.
Arrival
Sweet.
Peppery spice.
Development
Alcohol sting.
Finish
Dry vegetal note.
Sweet note, maybe toffee.
Dry oak.
Subtle herbal note.
Water - just a few drops
Nose
Caramel.
Pineapple.
Powdery texture on the smell.
Slightly sour note, reminds me of tangy fruit juice.
Hint of coconut. Dried coconut I think.
Touch of apple mint I think.
Hint of fresh fennel.
Arrival
Light.
A touch of sweetness, but not much.
Devloment
Hint of acetone.
Herbal.
Savoury.
Hint of chocolate.
Hint of vegetal liquorice.
Bit of savoury spices, but just a little.
Finish
Pineapple.
Mineral note, stoney.
Chocolatey note with salted caramel.
Savoury herbs.
Dry oak.
Tiny bit of cooling mint.
A few extra comments
This rum was actually quite whisky like. Dry, a little astringent and with almost no sweetness. The pineapple note reminded me vey much of what I remember of Old Pultney, although it's a while since I had it. I have a bottle in the cupboard for a future review so one day you'll be able to compare. The expectations of a light and vegetal rum with oaky notes were met, although I was expecting something a little fruitier. All good though, it was certainly pleasant and interesting
Conclusion
This was quite nice. I like that there isn't any sweetness, partly because it suits my tastes as I'm not keen on overly sweet spirits, and partly because it's interesting for a rum to be so dry. The dryness increased to the point of being quite astringent by the end. On a scale of one to ten I wouldn't have recognized this as rum if someone had handed me a glass an asked me what I thought it was. I probably would have guessed it was a whisky. Would I buy a full bottle? It's unlikely since it's not available in Norway and if I'm buying spirits while travelling it's usually whisky, although the whiskies available in airports are increasingly non age statement things that I don't entirely approve of, so there's a chance if the price is right, which it appears to be on Master of Malt. All in all this was a pleasant and interesting rum.
I hope you enjoyed this review. I did. Come back tomorrow for another lovely Christmassy advent calendar style situaton. Cheerio.
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