Nose: Not great. A little sherry and oak. Label says it was fully matured in Sherry casks. Doesn’t taste like it. Also, plasticine, glue and cheap brandy.
Palate: A little better than the nose with bread dough, some lime and tangerine. Then ruined again by the plasticine and glue.
Finish: Bitter, with plasticine and, thankfully, short.
Last Word: According to The Whisky Exchange, this was bottled in the 70s. Not Suntory’s finest hour.
Rating: 60/100
*This one may be a single malt as it was matured at Yamazaki and back in the day it was not unusual for Yamazaki/Hakushu single malts to be labeled as pure/blended malts.
I had a good laugh reading this review! A lot of these small sample bottles with older stuff in them can still be found all over Japan and it is quite fun to taste them, but as you have found out with this one you hardly ever hit the jackpot. I remember a mini bottle of Nikka Gold & Gold that read “superb whisky aged in wood”. Well, I hope so…
Unfortunately it was a full bottle Pierre, I just couldn’t download the photo for some reason. You can see the photo of my bottle on nonjatta. Some of those names will lead you astray on occasion. Actually a good idea for a post about some of the horror story whiskies I’ve tried.
Brian
I’d be very keen to see posts about “horror stories” regarding whiskies you have tried – perhaps another theme could be about these labels that are worded funny – as mentioned by Pierre “aged in wood”….Clint
Or one’s with interesting names Clint such as the one called Asparagus Whisky!
Brian