Nose: Meaty. Gravy, beef stock/bovril. Toffee and tobacco. Heavily peated by Japanese standards. Sherry, soy sauce, cow hide, Betadine, pan seared scallops, grilled pork chops, yakitori chicken skin, eucalyptus, teak. Simply reeks of Japan. Yeh baby!
Palate: Stunning. Beef stock, chicken gravy, candied nuts, sherry, earthy and sweet peat. Honey lollipop, marshmallow, cinnamon, nutmeg, stewed rhubarb, peppermint, menthol, coal. Water brings out hot spices, prefer this one neat. Perfect mouth feel for my tastes.
Finish: Long! The sweet and peaty elements in perfect balance.
Last Work: Brilliant! More heavily peated Yoichi please Nikka.
Rating: 94/100
This site presents me with a love/hate problem. I love reading your reviews and fantastic Japanese whisky. unfortunately these are whiskies I will never have a chance to taste as I have access to few malt whisky expressions from Japan…Arghhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Sorry Cato! Auc-Claude Whiskies listed under the where to buy Japan heading ships worldwide. Very reliable service and fast. The next best thing or even better, plan a trip to Japan. Between this site and Whiskies R Us there is now tons of information of what bars to go to in Japan to try the good/rare stuff. Most good bars there will do half shots as well to help keep the cost down.
Googling this cask #129651, I find lots of 1991’s….so how can this cask be both a 1988 and a 1991?…or is that not a cask #?
Pretty simple explanation Bret. I wrote down the wrong cask number. Oops. Has been edited. Thanks
I will say this, not to my defense but as a matter of history, you will see Karuizawa with the same cask number from time to time but different years as a portion of a cask is bottled for an importer then the rest of the cask bottled a year or more later for the domestic market. This happens the other way around as well, say, domestic market first then importer later. Not sure how this effects the whisky when half a cask is left for a year or more or if they have smaller casks to store the remaining contents in.
Back to the above Yoichi, you may not actually find it in a google search even with the correct cask number or with limited results. These ones are sold online at The Asahi shop in Japan. My understanding is many of these are bottled for Japan only and that Europe/UK often get their own single casks that are then not available in Japan.
Brian
Thanks, yeah I guess The Asahi Shop sold out of that one pretty quickly.
Actually this bottling was listed at the shop for a few months before they sold out Bret. I’ve had that bottle open around 6-8 months. Some bottles I post up notes on within a few days of receiving, others not until long after they are still available to buy.
Brian
Wow! Exciting stuff! Stuff to get extremely excited about. This one unfortunately won’t make to my cabinet given the price tag, perhaps I’ll just settle for a dram….when I can find it that is. Correct me and forgive me if I’m wrong but is this the highest score you have given a whisky amongst all your reviews? Lovely!
Not sure if it’s the highest score I’ve given Clint. I know there are a others I put in that league but it’s not a big list. Also, I haven’t written comprehensive notes on about 100 Japanese whisky’s I’ve tasted so far and some of those would be about that mark as well.