Blackadder Red Snake Raw Cask, Redneck # 112 / 59.8% / 0.7l

Blackadder International was founded in 1995 by Robin Tucek and John Lamond, authors of The Malt Whisky File: The Essential Guide for the Malt Whisky Connoisseur.

The company’s name is a reference to John Blackadder, a 17th-century condemned preacher who died in Edinburgh prison in 1685. Blackadder International specializes in single casks, with the casks selected by Robin Tucek himself. The Blackadder Raw Cask series debuted in 2000 and offers whisky in its original form, unfiltered and at cask strength. The Red Snake presented here, described as “Spicy,” comes from an undisclosed Scottish distillery and was aged in a first-fill “Redneck 112” bourbon cask. The whisky was bottled at 59.8% abv, unfiltered and uncolored, in February 2022 in an edition of 263 bottles.

Nose : slightly alcoholic, barley malt, vanilla, honey, caramel, green apples, pears, peaches, white pepper, cinnamon, notes of lemongrass and oak.

Taste : consistent with the aroma, breakfast cereals, vanilla, caramel, sweet bread, stewed apples, peaches, mirabelle plums, notes of pepper, ginger and oak.

Finish : quite long, warming, with notes of orchard fruit, roasted grain, vanilla, pepper and oak.