Blackadder Peat Reek RAW Cask PR2017-10

1 August 2018

I’m madly in love with these bottles. Shake it and it’s like you’re holding a snow globe in the form of a whisky bottle, with lots of black cask sediments swirling inside. You’ve read that right, Blackadder’s Raw Casks are known for the absence of heavy filtering, which give you all the true flavours, straight from the cask.

This edition is the 10yo Peat Reek Raw Cask from december 2006, which is sherry finished. The contents are secret, but what we know for sure, is that this malt comes from Islay. Always fun to speculate, let’s try to get a clue:

Tasting notes

Nose

It starts with youthful eucalyptus, apples and pears but it develops into a rich and swirling crescendo, with lots of honeyed malty tones and dried fruits, smoked ham, apricots, mint, rubber, wood and soft sherry notes, after a little while, the fruity aromas make place for wet burning wood

Palate

Full, malty and sweet, dry and incredibly oily, with notes of dried apricots, raisins, honey, chocolate, strawberry, fish oil capsules and a sweet whiff of woodsmoke accompanied by salty sea air

Finish

The finish is incredibly complex and offers cookies, cranberries, savory dried ham, dried fruits, nuts, mainly walnuts, raisins, peat smoke, aniseed, crispy fish that has been grilled on a bonfire and burnt rubber. The warming finish is almost endless, but when it dies, it dies with a peaceful smokey whiff of freshly lit lucifers and raisins.

It’s been a while since I wrote that much notes for a single whisky. But it’s just that complex. What distillery could this be? It’s very hard not to think of Ardbeg, with its oily and fishy texture. The sherry finish makes the guess a bit tricky though, it’s so incredibly well integrated in this peaty dram, that it almost feels like it could be anything. What do you think? This is one hell of a liquid, that’s for sure.