William Hinton White

William Hinton presses fresh sugar-cane juice on Madeira, one of the few places legally entitled to the term rhum agricole, and this white is bottled at a fierce 69%. It is all about the raw, unaged expression of the cane, a high-strength blanc that puts power and freshness front and centre.

Column-distilled and left unaged, it carries the saline, vegetal signature of a serious cane-juice white: fresh sugar-cane, olive and a varnish lift on the nose, then sugar-cane, herbal notes, citrus and a clear minerality across the palate, finishing on fresh cane and salt with a cooling menthol and eucalyptus edge. The intensity is considerable and the spirit reads dry rather than sweet. At 69% it is a punchy neat sipper for those who enjoy high-proof agricoles and clairins, and an assertive base for a Ti' Punch or mixed drink that can stand up to it.