Dead Reckoning Three Continents Blended Rum (700ml)

Dead Reckoning call this their 'hot house' rum – otherwise known as Dead reckoning TCB. Justin Boseley wanted to create a blend using three rums from three distilleries from three different continents. He also wanted to use cane juice as well as molasses based rums. The final blend is a trifecta of rums: 8% Guyanese (Diamond distillery), 56% South African (Mhoba) and 36% Vietnamese (Sampan distillery) created from three different stills - a Port Mourant double wooden vat single retort, an Enmore Coffee twin column and a Diamond Versailles single wooden vat single retort.

The final twist in this bottling was when Justin decided to age the barrel in his steel-sided garage in Adelaide. The vessel of choice was a level three char 200L x-Makers Mark bourbon barrel. He made a rack and wheeled the barrel into the afternoon sun for the 18 month period, also agitating the liquid and sloshing it around. Overnight it was brought inside where it naturally cooled, opening and contracting the internal grain, helping the spirit to cycle in and out of the wood. The rum's temperature reached a maximum of 52° and a minimum of 2° over the aging period and experienced a huge 7.8% increase in ABV and a 27% loss to the angel's share. The end result feels well beyond its true age; Intense and viscous with layers of funk, super ripe tropical fruit and a lipsmacking caney freshness; it tastes like a wild Jamaican with more pot still than column in the mix. Given the diverse components and the punishment the cask was subject to, you can't help but be impressed by just how well this experiment turned out. 185 bottles are on offer. 50.3% Alc./Vol.

Other reviews... Palate: The mix of still types gives this a creamy mouthfeel, but still a sense of ‘crispness’ of the column still. A medium pepper hit – but that tames very quickly and is much subdued by the second sip. There’s more funky tropical fruit here, but also liquorice, sweet caramel and even some very tame leather notes. Finish: That big sweet funky ester train just keeps on a-rollin’. The pot still percentage keeps the oilyness going well into the finish – real chewy stuff. So many sweet fruits and lolly-memories tumble and spin and dash in and out. This is a big, juicy and utterly delightful rum that is also a bit of a chameleon on your palate. Just when you think you’ve got it pegged, you pour another glass and find a new note that reminds you of something almost-forgotten from your childhood. In the subsequent drams since first penning these notes I’ve also picked up milk-bottle lollies, honey-jumble biscuits, tinned pineapple, sherbet and even a bubble gum from my very early days as a kindy kid in Switzerland who’s name I’ve forgotten – but I certainly remember that taste. It’s a rum you’re going to want another of to see if you did taste that… and another just to be sure. - rumtribe.com.au