Nose: Dried fruits, marmalade, overripe apricots, oak, wood stain, maple syrup, oranges, pink grapefruit, praline, drying fresh tanned leather, tree sap. No sulphury notes, whoo hoo!
Palate: Very punchy without water with a fix of fizzy fruit sherbets, dried fruits, praline, nougat and oak. With water there’s some toffee, orange jus, pepper, strawberry conserve and licorice added.
Finish: Dried fruits, oak, strawberry conserve, mild peppermint and licorice. Finally dies on hints of leather and charcoal.
Last Word: A fine Karuizawa with a lot going on. Not a sulphury note to be found which puts it in the minority of Karuizawa sherry cask matured whiskies.
Rating: 88/100
*Note: Once again another problem with the cork on a Karuizawa bottling. On the 3rd opening of this bottle, the cork snapped in two. Had to fish out half the cork with wooden skewers and a pair of tweezers. Straight into the not good enough basket.
Thanks, I understand…if I may, Brian, I forgot to mention my web site address inside the text, so here it is: http://www.gregswhiskyguide.com
Thanks a lot..your site is very previous for us european consumers, far from the “action”!
take care
greg
Hi Brian, hi everyone,
I had previously complained to Marcin Miller about the cork problem and they did promise to replace this kind of cork within a year or so (it was about 4 years ago) but apparently they didn”t or didn’t choose a secure enough new cork, so maybe you should write to him (I don’t buy Karuizawa anymore partly because of that, but mostly because of the way too high prices today, with all those speculators around. By the way, I’m Greg from France, having launched my web site about whisky a few months ago (mainly in french but it contains english text as well in some parts). I’m pleased also to have added a link to your web site as well. Kampaï!
Hi Greg,
At the speed and price No 1 Drinks and the retailers sell Karuizawa, it’s clear that the cork issue is not a concern for them. That issue has been raised on many a whisky blog and on many a whisky forum for a number of years now. Little old me has no influence what so ever with that company, though I do believe it is my obligation to mention it in posts as a matter of principle. The only Karuizawa I buy are the one’s I can source from my retailers in Japan where they sell for cheaper prices, well, at least initially. The one’s I just bought back from Japan may well be the last. Good luck with your website.
Hey Brian. Looks good this one, good strength too. Pity i missed it.
Oh, i’ll be replying to your emails finally (i only saw them recently). I’ve had a glitch on that account and haven’t been using it but it’s all sorted now so i’ve a ton of post to work through. 🙂
Yeh good one Pete and good price. Maybe 70 quid. As for my emails, probably going that far back I don’t remember what I wrote ; )