After a lay day on day four, we headed to Osaka on day 5. Despite a long day of travel I found the energy to meet with Clint from Whiskies R Us in Umeda for a few whiskies. Ended up at Bar Augusta. Not a huge range of Japanese whiskies, but a range none the less. By my reckoning about 25-30 different bottling’s. Plenty of Scottish whisky though. Staff were nice and we were well looked after by the Owner, who is very knowledgeable about whisky in general including the Japanese stuff. He had actually been to the Yamazaki distillery sometime in the last few days, I can’t remember exactly, and gave me some tips on a couple of drams he said I should try when we visit Yamazaki today.
Anyway, at Bar Augusta I tried a couple of newbies to me and a rare one I had tried on a previous occasion in Tokyo, the Golden Horse 14YO. The Golden Horse(Hanyu) being the pick for me, even better than I remember.
Golden Horse Single Malt 14YO 57%
Yoichi Vintage 1989 55%
SMWS Yoichi Virgin Oak Cask 116.17 Pinball Wizard in a Japanese Teahouse 59.2%
Thanks for the good company, Brian. I haven’t been able to get the 14-yo Golden Horse out of my mind. My new mission – to seek, purchase, and consume. You watch – there will be a flourish of these to spring up now and most likely at auction!!
Should have just bought the rest of the bottle and split into two large samples Clint.