BLACKADDER SINGLE MALT SCOTCH WHISKY
SCOTLAND
Why Buy: A pair of super-high octane, cask-strength single malts from one of the best, most revered names in the business, a family-owned independent bottler that has never chased trends or played the scores game, and whose purist mantra says it all: “Cask is King."
The Specs: The Blackadder The Legendary 8 Year Old was distilled in June 2015 and bottled just this past January. It was matured exclusively in medium-toasted, fine grain French oak casks; the Red Snake 11 Year Old — a truly limited-edition release, with only 231 bottles produced worldwide — was distilled in 2011; it underwent an innovative double-maturation process, first in first-fill ex-bourbon casks, then in sought-after Foursquare Rum casks, before being bottled in January 2024.
Our Tasting Notes:
* On the open, The Legendary 8 Year Old conjures an autumn afternoon, a medley of warm baking spices like cinnamon and ginger giving way to honey and a subtle earthiness from the peaty smoke. But it gets even better. The mouthfeel is wonderfully velvety, providing a sumptuous backdrop for the concentrated, almost chewy core of the spirit. The finish circles back to those autumnal fruits and spices, and sends you home on a note of tingling warmth.
* The Red Snake 11 Year Old begins with fanfare, an explosion of bold, attention-grabbing scents — tropical fruits, toasted oak, and a strong, wonderfully saline quality that evokes the seaside. The flavors to come are just as bold: rich dark chocolate, warm baking spices, a hint of coffee, all of them coming together in a whisky that, for all its intensity — which continues on and through the finish — intrigues with its subtleties and grace notes.
The Story: For over 25 years, this family-run operation founded by renowned whisky author Robin Tucek has remained singularly and passionately focused on selecting the finest casks and bottling their single malts at full, unadulterated strength, with no chill-filtration or artificial coloring to mask the pure, undiluted essence of the spirit within. At the heart of Blackadder's approach is a steadfast belief that the cask, rather than any other factor, is the true driver of a whisky's character and quality. And they have the data to back them up. Sixty to seventy percent of the flavors in a whisky, Tucek has said, come from the cask as the spirit lies maturing in the warehouse. Little wonder, then, why the Blackadder crew spends so much time sourcing barrels and making sure that they have matched the right barrel with the right spirit. Their white whale? The synergistic magic that can occur when a great whisky is married to the perfect wood — and for just the right length of time.
ABV: The Legendary 8 Year OId, 59.2% (118.4 proof); Red Snake 11 Year Old, 55.1% (110.2 proof).
Fun Fact: Tucek is not just a renowned whisky bottler — he's also a respected author. In 1989, Tucek co-wrote The Malt Whisky File with John Lamond, a comprehensive reference guide that is widely considered one of the most authoritative books ever published on single malt Scotch whisky. This pioneering text, which profiles hundreds of distilleries and their unique expressions, has become a must-have resource for whisky enthusiasts around the world.
Our Guarantee: Remember, we always buy and source direct, so you can be confident that your Blackadder whiskies will arrive in your hands with pristine provenance.