44.190 Unleash the serpent (Creators Collection)

Description

From the team

Cask 44.190 Unleash the serpent, in my opinion, is one of the punchiest worm tub expressions you can find. It is very characterful — meaty and sulphurous but quite delicious. At 21-years-old this dram offers an incredible complexity that not many whiskies can achieve. This new oak cask was treated with a heavy char, smoothing over any rough edges or impurities the distillate might have had. The result is a rich, fatty, nutty and meaty dram where you can really appreciate the significant time it has spent in cask. After this much time, some of the heavier compounds break down and react together, giving a more robust and waxy style to the spirit.

This is also a great example of how regional character in whisky can be very deceptive.

A region like Speyside has such a wealth of distilleries and techniques at hand that you cannot expect every dram to conform to its regional expectation. This dram in particular is very much removed from what we would describe as a traditional Speyside, though it’s still well within the expected norms of this distillate. It’s very textural with lots of bruised apples, shisha tobacco and cinnamon buns.

Tasting Panel notes

Big aromas caused a deluge of bramley apples, plum jam and assam tea to crash through the chocolate soil and leaf mulch on a forest floor. Beetroot brownies, treacle tarts and chestnuts became caught in the waves as they cascaded between oak trees and sappy pines. Adding water delivered sticky cough syrup packed with orange oil, lavender and cooling camphor before heavy black forest gateaux landed alongside prunes, cherries and sultanas soaked in armagnac. The sweet and thick syrup remained through to the finish, where it was joined by earthy clay flowerpots, split logs and the cooling sensation of mint chocolates. After spending 18 years in an ex-bourbon hogshead this was transferred to a first fill hogshead for the remainder of its maturation.