On today’s episode of A Tasting at The Murder Table, we’re discussing a release from one of our independent bottlers, Blackadder, which just happens to be imported into the US by our friend, Raj Sabharwal of Glass Revolution. This particular bottle was purchased by Limpd about a year ago, but he didn’t open it until recently when he was cajoled by Raj during our recent appearance on WhiskyCast Live. Oh that Raj! Such a cojoler!
This particular Blackadder goes by the name Black Snake. Here’s what they have to say about it:
Black Snake is produced from a Vatting of casks finished in a Single Sherry Butt. It starts its life in first-fill ex-Bourbon casks. We then put three of them into new Oloroso or PX Sherry butts and leave for around a year for further maturation before bottling two thirds of the cask. We call these “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 previous expressions from the Sherry Butt. From time to time the Sherry Butt is renewed. Each edition bottling of Black Snake is called “Venom”, as in the poison from a snake’s bite. A touch of Blackadder humour! The first bottling from each Vat is called “First Venom”, the second bottling is called “Second Venom” and so on.
The Black Snake that we’ll be discussing is the third bottling from this series, or as they like to call it, Third Venom. To find out what we thought of the delicious-sounding whisky with the rather sinister-sounding name, click the play button on the following video:
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Categories: Blackadder, Booze Banter, Booze Dancing TV, Booze Review
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It's just the booze dancing... 
Thanks for the kind words and a great review. Black Snake always uses First Fill Bourbon casks. These are then put into either Oloroso or PX Butts that we have bought direct from Spain. We leave them for around a year or so in the Butt before bottling around two thirds of the cask. The first bottling is what we call the First Venom. We then add another two casks of First Fill Bourbon Single Malt Scotch Whisky and leave for another year or so before bottling the Second Venom. And so on with the Third Venom etc. When we think the time is right the original cask will be replaced with a new Sherry Butt as we go on with Seventh, Eighth and Ninth Venom etc. Every venom therefore contains some of the first, second, third, etc Venoms. We liken this process to bottling from a mini-Solera. Although we never disclose the single malt we use for Black Snake, or its younger sister Red Snake, the Single Malt we use is always from the same distillery. I hope you don’t mind us sharing your review. Best regards and thank you so much! Robin Blackadder.
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Robin, Thank you for the information! Fascinating process! Thanks to Raj Sabharwal, we’ve been lucky enough to try a wide variety of your independent bottlings. We love what you do, I.e. put your personal touch and unique processes out there. It’s great fun and we look forward to tasting what you’ll. Come up with next. And yes yes yes, please share our review! We really appreciate it. And if you ever want to join us LIVE for a boozy chat on YouTube, please let us know. Cheers! G-LO
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Happy to make a link up some time in the future. Would have to be around 7pm my time, not yours. 🙂 Best to contact by email to my email address that I logged in with. Cheers, Robin.
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Awesome! I’m sure we can make it work. Will be in touch! Cheers!
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