Blackadder – Black Snake – Vat 2 Venom 6 – 59.9% abv (200ml)

200 ml

Image is for demonstration purpose only. This is a 200 ml Bottle

Blackadder – Black Snake – Vat 2 Venom 6 – 700ml – 59.9% abv
Bottle Intro
A DRAM HUNTER SELECTION USA EXCLUSIVE
Bottled October 2022.

Bottle Story
This whisky is from a Vatting of casks of Single Malt Whisky. It has been finished in an Oloroso Sherry Butt – bottled without chill-filtration and there is no added color.

Black snake starts its life in first-fill ex-Bourbon casks. We then put three of them into new Oloroso or PX Butts and leave them for about a year for further maturation before bottling two-thirds of each cask. We call these casks ‘Vats’ as they are a kind of mini Solera.
After each bottling, we add two more ex-Bourbon casks, always of the same whisky, and leave for around a year before again bottling two-thirds of the Vat. All future bottlings from each vatting of Black Snake will therefore contain some spirit that was in the previous expressions from the Butt. From time to time the Butt is renewed.

Each time we bottle we call it Venom, as in the poison from a snake’s bite. The first bottling from each Vat is called First Venom, and the second bottling is called Second Venom, and so on.

Bottle Tasting Notes
DISTILLERY INSIGHTS
Blackadder International was established 1995 by Robin Tucek who, together with daughter Hannah and son Michael run the family business
Robin Tucek is also co-auther with John Lamond of The Malt Whisky File – one of the most respected books about malt whisky. The Blackadder Raw Cask whiskies are complete cask whiskies bottled containing cask sediment.

DISTILLERY STORY
Blackadder’s philosophy is very simple – they believe that the Cask is King. Sixty to seventy percent of the flavors in a whisky are taken up slowly from the cask as the spirit lies maturing in the warehouse. The action of changing temperature draws the spirit in and out of the cask.
A family operation started and piloted by whisky legend Robin Tucek, they sell to a few limited countries around the world, primarily Tiawan, Japan, the USA and Sweden.

Blackadder was established in 1995 by Robin Tucek who runs the family business with his daughter Hannah and son Michael. Blackadder International gets its name from fugitive 17th-century preacher, John Blackadder. He is famous for preaching against the evils of alcohol.

Hannah Tucek states that the Blackadder International company will always be family-run. Each of the three owner-operators brings something unique to the table. Michael Tucek used to be a chef. He uses his familiarity with a wide range of aromas and flavors to write all tasting notes. Michael feels that “our sense of smell is the most direct sense to our brain and also our most complex. It’s proven that once you go over three aroma compounds mixed together, everything is subjective and becomes very personal. Every aroma can evoke a different memory in each of us and we build up our aroma library as we grow. By not being afraid to say what we sense and share it, we can all learn something from each other.” Like Michael, Hannah grew up around whisky and has come to appreciate whisky at its pure state. Her father and brother joke that she is the one that’s really in charge.

Every cask is unique, with its own fingerprint. This is why they bottle most of their whiskies from single casks. They don’t believe in chilling or otherwise heavily filtering their whiskies, and they never, repeat never, add caramel coloring or flavoring to their spirits. They have always believed the personalities of their whiskies are colorful enough. Their raw cask is famous for the barrel char in each bottle.