You might love rum, but do you love it enough that you'd build a custom barrel rack on wheels, and take a 200-litre barrel filled with a blend of rums from Guyana, South Africa and Vietnam, out to the searing Australian midday sun every day for 18 months? 

Good news is you don't have to, because Justin Boseley from Dead Reckoning, Australia's first rum independent bottler, has done it for us in what he calls Dead Reckoning TCB or Three Continents Blend.

The blend is 8% Guyana (3-Still, Port Mourant, Enmore Coffey and Diamond Versailles, Bourbon Cask tropically aged), 56% Mhoba (Pot Still, Cane Juice, American Oak African aged), and 36% Sampan (Column Still, Cane Juice). The single barrel contains rums aged between 2-5 years tropical ageing and then a further 1.5 years Australian dry ageing, with a 27% angel's share, and finally being bottled at 50.3% ABV.

"For this experiment, I decided to age a barrel of rum in my steel-sided garage in Adelaide, South Australia. The barrel used was a level three char, 200-L ex-Maker's Mark Bourbon barrel.

I made a barrel rack on wheels and wheeled the barrel into the afternoon sun, every single afternoon for the 18-month period. Then overnight, it was brought inside where it cooled down naturally, this had the effect of opening and closing, contracting the internal oak barrel grain.

Adding to that is the factor of it being wheeled twice a day, where the rum was agitated and sloshed around.

I had wanted to create a blend using three rums from three distilleries, from three different continents. Further to that, I also wanted to use both cane juice, as well as molasses-based rums. The rums used for the blend was Guyana/South Africa/Vietnam.

To my knowledge, I have not seen a blend with Mhoba or Sampan before."

Justin Boseley, Dead Reckoning

With internal barrel temperatures registering a maximum of 52 degrees Celsius and a minimum of 2 degrees Celsius over an ageing period of 1.5 years, the single barrel saw an increase in ABV by 7.8% over that 18-month period - an effect that is of increasing fascination to the rum community, known as Australian Dry Ageing. 

But just as importantly, how does this experimental single barrel taste? The official taste profile tells us to expect "Apricot, cantaloupe, lychee, mango, peaches, nectarines".

"As an indie bottler, it’s nice to be able to play around with things, try different blends, experiment and ultimately leave your fingerprint on a release. The end result on this experiment is a spirit that tastes well beyond its true age, rich viscous with layers of stonefruit flavours." says Justin. 

This single barrel totalling only 185 bottles is earmarked for the Australian market in 2024 and will be distributed via Rum Tribe. 

Kanpai!

88 Bamboo Editorial Team