Dead Reckoning Barbados ‘The Bosun’s Persuader’ 14-year-old Rum - is an unassuming weapon of a rum that packs more than a punch at a brawling 61% abv. Tropically aged in Barbados for 8 years in an unnamed ex-bourbon cask, it was then transferred to Justin’s care in Adelaide, poured into a 200 litre first-fill Makers Mark ex-bourbon barrel and further ‘dry aged’ in Adelaide for another 6 hot, dry South Australian years.
Bosun’s Persuader, was a weighted, flexible club used by Royal Navy boatswains (Bosuns) to discipline lazy sailors or enforce press-gangs to recruit men by hitting them, often on the head, to ensure they worked or joined the ship. These antique naval tools featured lead weights at the ends, connected by a shaft of flexible material like baleen or whalebone, covered in intricately knotted twine or cord, serving as a harsh disciplinary instrument.
Nose: A rich bowl of Titanically deep slightly over-ripe tropical fruit notes, sweet, hot, dripping caramel and Christmas cake spices by the absolute bucketload, fragrant vanilla pods just-cut and scraped, and freshly opened Allen’s jube lollies complete this olfactory symphony. I could spend hours with my nose in this glass – sumptuous, inviting, warm and just so, so good you’ll find yourself with your glass under your nose for 99% of the time you have this rum in your hand.
Palate: A warm heat with some peppery prickles that build and then quickly melt away as sweet waves of fruit mince crash onto a luscious base of vanilla custard, mixed-peel citrus, Jasmine flowers and
Finish: Gives away the column still component as it fades with an interesting sweet yet dry-ness. More citrus peel notes sit alongside hi-cocoa dark chocolate, subdued but discernible [Barbadian] funk . Lip smackin’, cheek suckin’, long chewin’ goodness!700 mo 61% abv