Nose: Antiseptic, diesel, smoked ham hocks, fresh potato skins, stewed apples, currants, soy sauce, soot, apricots. An approachable nose.
Palate: Big hot alcohol hit for ‘only’ 54.5%abv. Paprika and chili’s. Soot, sump oil, toffee, nougat, lemon meringue pie. Water adds. salt, orange sherbet, Brazil nuts, bitter dark chocolate.
Finish: Iodine, soot, antiseptic, nougat and menthol.
Last Word:The palate is a bit unbalanced with the amount of alcoholic heat. Water does quell the fire but you need a fair splash. The nose is really nice and the finish has decent length. Overall it’s still a solid young peated whisky but not as good as the 2015 version.
87/100
finally picked up a bottle of this one. haven’t opened yet so no tasting notes yet, but can confirm this single cask is limited to a whopping 618 bottles. for the USA
On the topic of Chichibu: some local retailers have just gotten bottles of Chichibu Port Pipe Single Cask #1367. Distilled 2009, bottled 2015 at 62.4%. 4,200 bottles. They’re asking US$350. I’m tempted, but wanted to get other opinions. Thoughts, anyone?
My opinion is that this really is a ridiculous price for a 5-6 years old whisky, but this is within the price range that single cask Chichibu sell for and supply and demand shows that Ichiro Akuto-san can sell every drop of whisky he makes no problem at all. I’m not sure though how they could get 4200 bottles out of a single cask so I gather that’s a typo: )
I paid about Y8600 for the 2016 Peated.
I also think that it’s quite easy to get caught up in the hype that single casks are better. I’m pretty sure there has been a lot more single cask bottling’s of Chichibu that standard bottling’s. I don’t care what distillery it is, 80% of your stock is not that good that it can be bottled as a single cask. A lot of it is all smoke and mirrors to create a desire to buy.
I thought that was odd as well, but you can see on this photo (http://tinyurl.com/ChichibuPortPipe) it says 4,200 bottles. Now that I look more closely at it, it appears they nicked the photo from the 2009-2013 Port Pipe bottling that you reviewed back in May 2013. Can’t find a label photo for the bottle in question. My mistake, in any case.
Agreed re: your point on Single Casks. One can understand the appeal of a more limited product (200-odd bottles in comparison to, say, the 10 million bottles of Glenmorangie produced every year). But, to borrow a metaphor from another website: most casks are not soloists; they belong in a choir.
I hope you managed to get your hands on a bottle – I’ve been searching high and low and been hitting walls everywhere I go!
Any suggestions as to where I can find them?
Apologies for the late reply, I just saw this. Here’s where I found it: http://tinyurl.com/ChichibuPortPipe1367