Nose: Maple Syrup, mild chicken korma, BBQ grilled pineapple, vanilla, honey, buttered crumpets, licorice, damp earth, butterscotch, walnuts, Pineapple Lumps, Granny Smith apples, mango, light tobacco. Plush!
Palate: Sharp blue cheese, pomegranate’s, mixed peel, papaya, hot spices, tobacco, burnt banana, oak, big saltiness. Water smooth’s things out, the maple syrup and honey make a return and some burnt lemon meringue is added. Big stuff at ‘only’ 46%.
Finish: Some coal, dried fruits, papaya, burnt lemon meringue pie, BBQ grilled banana, oak, butter, salt and pineapple.
Last Word: The nose is exquisite. Palate is fiery and needs water. A powerful and interesting whisky.
Rating: 89/100
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Hi Brian, that nose is to die for. Some classic trademark notes with a few extra “plush” notes that crop up from time to time outside of Kirin’s house style. Based on your description regarding the nose…I could spend a lot of time with this before it touched my lips. On the topic of some other fantastic unfamiliar Kirin malts, and addressing both comments from yourself and Pierre, Bar Paridis has that lovely lightly peated 12yo single malt – celebration of 2000 I think it was. A cracker of a dram that shows a different side to the distillery – Pierre, I believe you have had this on visiting the bar.
Lovely, Brian! Hope to see more unfamiliar Kirin single malt reviews.
While not an exact replica Clint, the nose is of the same order of something like Mars 3 Plus 25. Nicole gives it the thumbs up and she’s not a whisky drinker(except for highballs : )). I do have at least a couple of other Kirin I haven’t written notes for yet.
Hell, you are right, Clint. And a very fine dram that was! How could I have forgotten about this? Must check out more Kirin in the future.
Fuji Gotenba distillery is getting more and more intriguing! While I think that their Fuji Sanroku 18yo core range bottling is somewhat unassuming, it is good to know that they also produced malts such as this one. In addition, I had the opportunity to taste the 15yo single grain expression available at the distillery – sublime! Well, perhaps I will have to go and pay them a visit in due time.
Next time your at Zoetrope in Tokyo or down in Osaka(Clint can show you where), try Kirin’s lightly peated Pure Malts(actually single’s) Pierre or the 20th Anniversary Pure Malt. The good thing is that a dram of this stuff from Kirin compared to most other Japanese distilleries offerings of the same age and rarity are decidedly cheaper. Think I paid about Y1300 for the lightly peated 20YO from Kirin. Try paying that for Karuizawa or Hanyu.
Kirin whisky has it’s own distinct house style, though this can be diluted more or less depending how much it is blended with stuff from Seagram’s. Obviously the Pure/Single malt stuff directly distilled at Gotemba has none of this influence at all.