Nose: A massive bowl of stone fruits mixed with oak, bran and malt. There is a bitter sweet element (with the emphasis on the sweet). Caramel/vanilla popcorn and some of the floral notes I often find in Ichiro’s Malts. After a while, those floral notes become more prominent.
Palate: Gristy, fruity, oaky, malty, and spicy. Chocolate and marmalade. Water brings the spicy/tangyness to the fore. Just fantastic!
Finish: Long, warming, oaky, spicy, floral and fruity.
Last Word: This is another fine young Ichiro’s malt. It is complex, powerful and balanced. A firm favourite of mine: very moreish but, as it is not easy to find, I tipple sparingly.
Rating: 91/100
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Brian,
I am finally trying a sample of the Game. Any idea what cask this is from? My guess is Mizunara but I am not very sure. Please enlighten me.
Hi Aaron,
I cannot find any regular sources that list the cask type. This was one of the first Japanese whiskies I ever bought. As you would know, cask type is not listed on the bottle.
However, if I was to guess I would say Virgin American White Oak, maybe refill bourbon, not Mizunara.
Aha, checked out the Shinanoya website(this was bottled for Shinanoya), and even though it is long discontinued. it indeed seems to be a vatting of American White Oak and refill bourbon casks. ‘Personality of the middle of the new oak and bourbon barrels’.
Brian
Interesting.
The website mentioned new oak and bourbon so you are right 🙂 it also mentioned something called “Grain Seasoning Puncheon”…. maybe it means ex-bourbon used to age grain whisky (the Kawasaki maybe??). Anyways, this is a very outstanding dram.
And cost only Y7300 a bottle when it was released. Why oh why didn’t I buy two or more at the time.