Truth be told I haven’t tasted a lot of down right awful whiskies whether Japanese or Scottish. Same may be bland, extremely average, or I may not like the style personally, but truly horrible, thankfully not many. I’m especially grateful for this as, like most whisky punters, I’m putting my hand in my own pocket to pay for this stuff.
On a few occasions however I’ve come across some Japanese whisky that has been downright nasty. So to borrow from part of the title of one of my all time favorite movies, here is Japanese whisky, The Bad and The Ugly.
Nikka De Ta Blend: For those that like a little whisky with their sulphur.
Kirin Robert Brown Deluxe Blend: Cheap to buy and for good reason, it tastes like it.
Karuizawa Vintage Cask 1987 15 #2114 60.2%: Perfume, kero, some kind of boiled meat, burning rubber…. and that’s the good part.
Mars Malt Gallery SC 1988 #0565-107 Sherry Butt 58%: Pour some Old Spice Cologne or similar into a whisky glass then drink. Same effect.
Suntory Yamazaki Gold Sherry Cask from the 70’s 42%: Warning! Do not try this at home folks…..or anywhere else!
Kirin Dunbar Pure Malt: Just plain weird. Possible uses, glueing together your next Airfix model kit ‘cuz that’s what it smells/tastes like.
I reckon I’ve seen a bottle of Dunbar at a particular auction going for 8,000 yen/85 EU. Funny isn’t how often old labels/bottles are perceived to be of value/collectable (which they are on a personal basis), purely for appearances and era, only to contain quite rightly extremely poor whisky. But hey, I guess the punters who pay such prices for say the Dunbar are doing so with no intentions of drinking it?
Hi Clint,
I think you will find that particular bottle of Dunbar is/was listed by a retailer who prices all the stuff he has on auction well over the odds.
Brian
Haha, I had great fun reading this. A true cabinet of curiosities! I hope the Kirin Dunbar Pure Malt will never come my way…
Funny thing Pierre is that the whole bottle of Dunbar cost less than the half that of a single dram of the Karuizawa mentioned on the list. Not sure if that is better or worse as I then had to find a way to dispose of a whole bottle of the Dunbar! : (