Nose: Pineapple, stewed pears, white peaches, lime, banana custard, vanilla, unsalted cashews, oak.
Palate: Coconut, creamed corn, stewed pears, lime, pepper (lots), ginger, nutmeg, vanilla.
Finish: Medium length on coconut, apple sauce, bees wax, vanilla, nutmeg, pepper and ginger.
Last Word: Fruit and spices, what’s not to like? A few points better in my opinion than the 2011 release.
Rating: 87/100
Nose: A lot more vanilla than than the 2011 release. Lemon barley, grapefruit, apricots, butterscotch, nutmeg, measured oak, varnish, wood spices.
Palate: Apricots, pecans, oak, wood spices, vanilla, malt, nutmeg.
Finish: Shortish with apricots, grapefruit, pecans and wood spices dominating.
Last Word: More typical of a bourbon cask matured whisky than the 2011 release with it’s heavy tropical fruit notes and flavours.
Rating: 85/100
Available now from the Asahishop one x new Single Cask Yoichi and one x new Single Cask Miyagikyo. Ok, so you need to know someone in Japan to order them if you live outside that country, but, for those who do they represent rare opportunities as these one’s tend to be Japan only releases, with the UK/Europe receiving allocations of different casks. Prices are Y15750 for the Yoichi and Y8400 for the Miyagikyo.
Distillery notes describe some of the following attributes to these:
Miyagikyo Single Cask 2002-2012 11YO #102949 Warehouse No.6 62%: Floral, fruity, malty, elegant, silky.
Yoichi Single Cask 1994-2012 18YO #400749 Warehouse 25 62%: Savoury, incence, vanilla, sweet oak, light peat, salt, bittersweet.
I’ve ordered 2 bottles of the Yoichi but I may not get tasting notes up for a while as I have quite a backlog of other notes already, so first things first.
Nose: A bit spirity. Kind of reminds me of those middle of the road Scotch blends my parents used to drink: stewed apples, bran, straw, glue. Not bad, but not special either.
Palate: Fairly smooth and clean; very malty. Peanut shells, chocolate, bran, oranges and glue.
Finish: Medium length with malt, spice and uncooked rice.
Last Word: This is a pretty straight forward blend that would go well with ice on a warm day or with your favorite mixer.
Rating: 74/100
Nose: Is soft and fruity, mainly peach and pear. Some cereal notes of oats and bran; also varnish, white pepper and baked carrots. After about 10 minutes, some oak comes into the picture.
Palate: Very clean malt, some white pepper, bran, cream, marzipan, sweet baked carrot, sweet corn.
Finish: Medium length, medium spice, and echoes what came before. Leaves a feeling of white pepper covered bran on the palate. After about 20 minutes, the nose produces a nice hit of malt.
Last Word: Overall, this is a very pleasant whisky and a first class effort for a company that only produces one whisky. Like a number of Japanese blends I’ve had, this doesn’t come across as overly ‘blendy’.
Rating: 82/100
With the recent release of the latest James Bond film Skyfall, I thought it may be fun to post a connection between JB and Japanese whisky, though the video’s below might only represent a tentative connection. Suntory White Label Blend gets a nod in the novel ‘You Only Live Twice’, so Ian Fleming was certainly familiar with Japanese whisky as far back as 1962 when he travelled around Japan for the second time accompanied by Australian friend Richard Hughes and Tiger Saito, both journalists. Fleming did visit Japan in 1959, but only for 3 days which casts doubt as to whether he would have learnt of Japanese whisky on that trip. The novel itself was first published in March 1964.
There have been some classic advertisements from Suntory utilising celebrity power for the Japanese market. So, long before Bill Murray introduced the world to, “For Relaxing Times, Make It Suntory Time” in Sofia Coppola’s ‘Lost in Translation’, there was the following starring Sean Connery(Bill was drinking Hibiki 17, Sean Crest 12).
Nose: Dried fruits but this is not complex enough to separate them. Dry Sherry, lemon, vanilla. Quite a lot of varnish and oak to compete with though.
Palate: Mixed peel and other dried fruits(see nose). Bitter nuts, varnish, a little vanilla and burnt toast. Adding water flattens what is already a pretty basic experience.
Finish: A bit hot, dried fruits, vanilla, caramel, bitter nuts and some ash.
Last Word: Simple.
Rating: 78/100
Nose: Sherry, orange, pie crust, wood stain, a little tar, struck match but not overpowering and a vinous note(red wine).
Palate: Light, sherry, caramelised orange jus, caramel, sweet spices, some nuttiness and a little struck match.
Finish: A bit dry on wood and sherry. Candies and caramel.
Last Word: Not particularly taxing but quite drinkable. This also comes in a Cask Strength version which has a similar profile that I tasted at Zoetrope Bar Tokyo in 2011.
Rating: 80/100
Some readers may have seen this article already Wineterroirs,
but I’ve only just stumbled across it during my research for this blog. Written by Bertrand Celce it really is a cracking report on this new Japanese distillery!
Welcome to The Japanese Whisky Review by Dramtastic. It’s a brand spanking new blog, so I thought it would be appropriate to kick off with some tasting notes on a couple of the latest bottlings from Japan’s newest distillery – Chichibu. Please enjoy!
Nose: There are signs of youth with some yeast/wort. It is also fairly light. Pork rinds, ash and coal, brine, caramel chews, seared scollops.
Palate: Again fairly mellow for 50.5%. Lots of natural caramel, pepper, pork crackling, ash, diesel, lemon, oregano, some candyness, menthol.
Finish: Pork rinds, caramel, menthol, oak, ash/tar, some hot spices then sweet fizzyness.
Last Word: Ok I was expecting to be blown away the way I was when I first tasted the Chichibu Newborn Heavily Peated. Didn’t quite work out that way as this is a more tempered experience. Still quite amazing for the age, the flavors have become more concentrated after a couple of months open.
Rating: 86/100
Nose: Thick manuka honey, sap/resin, euchalyptus cough drops, brown sugar, steamed spinach, mixed herbs, caramel, magnolias, white peaches, zinfandel, caramel chews. Water enhances the resin and herbs.
Palate: Wow! Very fruity. White plums, white peaches, brown sugar, blueberry bubblegum, mizunara oak, manuka honey, zinfandel. Water brings out sweet spices and florals.
Finish: Honey, white peaches, zinfandel, white plums, resin/sap, fresh tanned leather. Water lengthens the finish.
Last Word: 3 years old, has to be a misprint! How much longer could this stuff spend in such active casks? My favorite Chichibu so far. A winner!
Rating: 88/100.
Nose: Dry and spiced Sherry over high roast Java. Plum jam, demerara rum, soft licorice, chocolate, menthol, cigar leaf, leather satchel, soy sauce, soft oak.
Palate: Follows the nose quite closely with some big sweet spices and balancing tannins.
Finish: Long and mouth coating.
Last Word: If you are a lover of sherried whiskys, this is a must. There is a number of different casks and ages for this series.
Rating: 93/100
*Update 16/2/2012: Nearing the end of this bottle and it has developed a smoky element as well.
Nose: Strap yourself in for one hell of a ride. This one has bonkers peat. Forget any Islay medicinal notes, this is sweet, dry, earthy, oaky peat. Subtle it is not. Hang on! Is something coming through. No, my mistake, just more peat.
Palate: This is the only whisky I need water with. Neat: This is powerful stuff, peat bomb to the max. Some heavy duty spice develops and a little oak. Water brings out the same lychee and cherry blossom notes on the nose and palate that you will also find in this one’s ‘little brother’ The Cask of Hakushu Heavily Peated 1993. Here, it barely makes a dint in the peat though. There is a peanut oil oiliness to the mouth feel. Finish: Spicy, hot, peaty. Comments: I absolutely love it!!
Rating: 93/100
A rich succulent nose of oak, sherry, nuts (walnuts), gentle spices and a hint of varnish. The spices crash on the palate like a tidal wave. This is coupled with beautiful clean malt, oak nut and sherry. The lip smacking spices and clean malt continue right to the finish. Never loses it composure.
Rating: 92/100
Nose: Citric peat, diesel, chargilled steak. Water adds some floral notes.
Palate: Chargrilled sirloin marinated in Old No.7 sauce with chargrilled eggplant and chargrilled capsicum on the side. Eucalyptus tree regrowth after a bush fire. Camphor, Kippers. Peppery spice, cigar smoke. With water becomes more citric/lemon and chocolatey. Perfectly drinkable neat at 61.4 per cent.
Finish: Peat, peppered gravy, chargrilled steak, cigar smoke, diesel, lemon. Long, warming and drying out at the end.
General comments: I’d heard good things about this. Seems they are true. Amazing balance and complexity for a 3-month-old new make.
Rating: 88/100
Nose: Salt(funnily enough) peat(mmmm), oak, peaches, bran, brine
Palate: Sweet and vegetal peat, sweet and bitter combo of vanilla and citrus, malt, sea spray.
Finish: Is of medium length, with a kind of citric peat, smoke, spice and cream.
Rating: 87/100
Nose: Oakey, malty, custard, smoke and ripened bananas
Palate: Fruity, oak, strawberry’s and cream, gentle smoke
Finish: Warm and spicy, late lingering smoke.
Rating: 83/100
Nose: Sweet overall, oak, fruit cake, Smoke and sweet spice
Palate: Again sweet spice, oak, vanilla, dried fruit and smoke
Finish: Silky and long, has some rum like qualities(mollasses), licorice, oak and smoke.
Rating: 85/100 tasted from a sample. Photo indicative
Nose: Immediately recognisable Yoichi OB nose of sherry, oak, malted honey, varnish and sweet peat.
Palate: Honey, golden syrup, oak, malt and sweet peat.
Finish: Malty, bran, quite dry and minty, vegetal peat. Very good length.
Rating: 83/100