Nose: Oak, varnish, soy sauce, stewed pears, vanilla, red apple peel, peanut butter, peach skins. Lots going on. Continually evolving.
Palate: Quite hot. chilies? Yeast, soy sauce, peanut butter, thickened cream. A little water actually makes this hotter. More water again brings out vanilla and cherry blossom.
Finish: Long, warming and dominated by the flavours on the palate.
Last Word: A bit of an oddity, the flavours don’t quite gel together, but still fun and interesting.
Rating: 84/100
Nose: Clean and fresh. Banana, vanilla, malt, light oak, blueberry and custard apple.
Palate: Ultra clean mouth feel. The flavours from the nose with some nutmeg and white pepper spice. A hint of bubbegum.
Finish: Is short and clean with some creaminess. The nutmeg and white pepper clings to the top palate. Finally, there is burst of Granny Smith apples.
Last Word: Lovely stuff, well balanced and very moreish.
Rating: 87/100
Nose: An off note of slightly rotting stone fruits (nectarines, plums). Wattle flower, currants.
Palate: Raisins, dark plums, plum jam, figs, black pepper and hoisin sauce.
Finish: Medium length with raisins, figs, black pepper and the off note from the nose returning.
Rating: 76/100
Nose: Not great. A little sherry and oak. Label says it is fully matured in Sherry casks. Doesn’t taste like it. Also, plasticine, glue and cheap brandy.
Palate: A little better than the nose–bread dough, some lime and tangerine. Then ruined again by the plasticine and glue.
Finish: Bitter, with plasticine and, thankfully, short.
General comment: According to The Whisky Exchange, this was bottled in the 70s. Yamazaki has clearly come a long way since then.
Rating: 62/100
Nose: Mouldy orange and grapefruit skins intertwined with a strong floral note. Some woodiness and a little apricot.
Palate: A soapy mouth feel. It is bitter and adds little to what was found on the nose.
Finish: Bitter, basic and, like Suntory’s Gold Blended Malt, mercifully short.
Rating: 64/100
Nose: Briney and minerally. Some lemon, a little soapy and a floral note. Fairly flat, overall.
Palate: Smooth, a bit creamy. Some malt, nuttiness and musk. A very basic construction, without any real development.
Finish: A bit of malt and musk. Dies a short, simple death with some trailing bitterness. Mineral tastes at the end.
Rating: 67/100
Nose: Fairly light, with apricot, walnuts, fresh cut timber, sandalwood, caramels and lime.
Palate: Peanuts, walnuts, wood chips, wood spice, caramels, lime, cinnamon and coconut
Finish: Shortish with nuts mixed with Werther`s originals and lime.
Las Word: There are some nice flavours there but you have to dig hard to find them.
Rating: 79/100
Nose: Soft notes of sandalwood, sherry, lavender, teak, leather and mollasses
Palate: Milk chocolate, sherry, walnuts, toffee, salt, nutmeg and wood spices.
Finish: Medium. Nicely balanced with wood spices, mollasses, leather and toffee.
Rating: 86/100
Nose: Red apples, sawdust, malt, sugared grapefruit, vanilla, biscuity; Scotch-like.
Palate: Chunky malt, vanilla, fruit jubes; a little oily.
Finish: Short, malty, sweet and oily.
Last Word: Solid blend with no peaks or troughs.
Rating: 78/100
Nose: Strong notes of vanilla, sherry, euchalyptus fire, burnt pie crust, overipe peach, burnt popcorn. A little sulphur, which works with this one.
Palate: Very strong flavours, even with a little water. The burnt popcorn is huge. Chargrilled steak, sherry, euchalyptus fire, malt, flambéed bananas.
Finish: Long, with malt, sherry, flambéed banana and then lots of ashy dryness from the various charred flavours on the palate.
Last Word: An eclectic whisky to say the least. Unfortunately some of the sulphury notes have begun to dominate over the last 12 months
Rating: 82/100
Nose: Pear, vanilla, brine, a little vinous(white wine), oranges, oak, smoke.
Palate: Explosion of malt, lemon sherbert, sweet oak, salt, hint of sherry, blackcurrent, smoke, mouth coating
Finish: Long, starts with malt and blackcurrent sweetness then ashy/smokey dryness. After about five minutes some yeast and fresh cut timber join in.
Last Word: Has developed a few gluey/sulphury notes over the last 6 months
Rating: 84/100
Nose: Sandalwood, creme caramel, oak, nectarines, glazed orange slices, candied nuts.
Palate: Sweet and very smooth at 60% abv. More of the candied nuts and sandalwood, all spice, oak, toffee and a hint of pipe tobacco. A little water exagerates the candied nuts and tobacco.
Finish: With water it is smooth, sweet but not cloying on sweet spices, Asian incense, candied nuts and sandlewood.
Last Word: Classic Ichiro’s, tasty, and very Japanese, if you know what I mean.
Rating: 90/100
A vatting of sherry, hogshead and puncheon casks
Nose: Rich. Sherry, tinned peaches, caramel, leather, musk, Champion Ruby tobacco, Bourbon-like orange (Woodford Reserve).
Palate: Leather is prominent, lemon, sweet tobacco, Morrocan spice, candied orange, musk sticks, sherry.
Finish: Rich with tobacco, sherry, caramel, musk sticks. Then, a little dry.
Rating: 84/100
Nose: Peach fuzz, vanilla, lychen, barley, cauliflower and white sauce, lemon, woodstain, straw, banana.
Palate: Light and crisp, lemon squash, chestnuts, straw, barley, vanilla, banana and a little chilli. With water, it has toffee, tobacco and pineapple.
Finish: Shortish, smooth and easy going. Bittersweet. On toffee, lemon, tobacco, bran, banana and a hint of nutmeg.
Last Word: Has evolved positively with time.
Rating: 79/100
Nose: Lots of leafy notes to start. Bourbony. Cola, cigar leaf, some floral notes, bread dough, lemon, pork crackling, strawberry, butter menthols, fish sauce, mashed potatoes.
Palate: Neat, it’s big on hot spices; vanilla, cola, tobacco and strawberry. With water, lots of barley sugar, more vanilla, sweet orange, ginger, honey and bubblegum.
Finish: Is long and malty with tobacco, mushrooms and sweet spices.
Last Word: Chichibu is officially on the whisky map and how!
Rating: 86/100
Nose: Big sherry, mixed berries, sweet oak, red grapes, vanilla wafer.
Palate: Nutmeg, cinnamon and vanilla, sherry, medium-weight dark chocolate, figs, berries, a hint of pine, and just enough tannins to balance the sweetness.
Finish: Clean, warming, spicy, with dark cherry, marzipan, blueberry, mint and again, just the right amount of oak and tannins.
Last Word: One to spend 30 minutes nosing. Perfectly balanced and superb.
Rating: 93/100 Points
Nose: Smooth oak, biscuity, vanilla bean, apricot, nectarine.
Palate: Sweet spice, vanilla, sweet orange peel, apricot, vanilla, fresh cream, licorice, oak.
Finish: Again smooth oak, warming sweet spice, creamy, licorice, sweet orange and apricot.
Rating: 88/100
Nose: Fresh oak, pepper, earthy peat, lime juice, soap flakes, cherry blossom, pineapple and a little salt
Palate: Typically clean Hakushu mouth feel. Immediate hit of pepper. Licorice, lime juice, subtle earthy peat, some peanut shell bitterness, strawberry chocolate, menthol.
Finish: Is short-medium on pepper, lime juice, strawberry chocolate then fades to green apples.
Last Word: Think of punchier version of Hakushu 12 with some added sweetness.
Rating: 86/100
Nose: Juicy. Tropical fruit salad infused crisp oak. Vanilla, passion fruit, lychee, pineapple, pear, strawberry, blueberry bagels. Some hay, bran, cane sugar, currants.
Palate: Lovely. Big sweet-spice hit balanced with a little salt. The spicyness gives a bigger mouth feel than The Hakushu Bourbon Barrel. More of the tropical fruit salad with some added butteriness. Pecans and sweet pear.
Finish: Medium on tropical fruits, blueberry bagels, pecan pie, hint of menthol and well integrated oak.
General comment: Recommended
Rating: 89/100
Nose: Has some elements that I find in a lot of in Hanyu such as fragrant wood/incense, but also fresh-baked rhubarb and apple pie, brown shoe polish, beef kebabs with capsicum, caramels, toasted oak, anise. hubba bubba. As they say in New Zealand, ‘Choice Bro’!
Palate: Yummy! There’s a fragrant element and a balance between the sweet, meaty and woody elements on the nose, including some cinnamon-dusted doughnuts. Well crafted.
Finish: Warming and palate coating.
Last Word: I hope Akuto-san has some more of these “Chibidaru” (cute/wee) cask matured whiskies that can be released to the general public. A light that definitely should not be hidden under a bushel.
Rating: 90/100