THE CHUAN × Jacky Tsai Year of the Snake Limited Edition Rebirth in Transformation
01st Dec 2024 Emei Mountain, China
In 2024, THE CHUAN invited Jacky Tsai to create a limited-edition design for the Year of the Snake. Drawing on the distillery’s landscape at Mount Emei and the tools of whisky-making, Tsai imagined a golden serpent winding through the mountains.
Its form grows from the working world of the distillery. Fermentation vessels, copper stills, oak casks and tasting implements become the building blocks of a living creature, connecting the journey from grain to whisky with the symbolism of transformation and renewal.
One Painting Across Three Boxes
Placed side by side, three presentation boxes join to reveal a complete painting. The golden serpent travels across the panels and through the layered landscape of Mount Emei, turning the packaging into a continuous panorama.
Three presentation boxes align to reveal the complete composition.
The Anatomy of the Serpent
The casks woven into the serpent’s body represent the three cask traditions used by THE CHUAN: European sherry casks, American bourbon casks and its specially developed Chinese Danling oak casks (中国单岭桶). Together with the fermentation and distillation vessels, they give the creature a form rooted in the equipment and materials of the distillery.
One of the composition’s most playful transformations brings together a nosing glass and an ear of barley. The barley held within the glass becomes the serpent’s flickering tongue, connecting the raw material of whisky-making with the ritual of appreciating its aroma.
Through these connections, the familiar objects of the distillery become a mythical serpent moving through Mount Emei. Each detail carries part of THE CHUAN’s story, from fermentation and distillation to maturation in wood and the final encounter with the whisky in a glass.
Gold details of the distillery-inspired serpent on the Year of the Snake presentation box.
