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: 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
Nose: White plums, sweet glazed orange slices, burnt pie crust, a fair amount of oak, apricot conserve, butterscotch, hint of nutmeg. Again, you have to work hard to find all that.
Palate: Strawberry, burnt pie crust, grapefruit, rhubarb stalks. Once more, water makes this very unbalanced and on the bitter side.
Finish: Okay but not something you’d want to hold onto forever. Water slaughters anything remotely pleasurable
Rating: 75/100
Nose: Quite simple. Raisins, oranges, lemon, vanilla, hay, rubber, oregano, burnt pie crust. Fairly benign overall for 61.7% abv.
Palate: Taken neat, there is a little raisin, bubblegum, rhubarb, strawberry, but you’ve gotta work hard to find it. Actually too brutal at full strength to reveal any complexity. With water, there is a lot of bitter tannins. Way to much really. Extreme bitter dark chocolate, some bitter orange peel, grapefruit and a smidgen of vanilla (thank heavens).
Finish: Either too brutal without water to be complex or bitter to the max with the water added
Rating: 72/100
Nose: Earthy peat, oak, soy sauce, oyster sauce, seaweed, sandalwood, malt, maple syrup. Lovely.
Palate: Sweet lemon, earthy peat, leather, oak, soy sauce, malt, dates, maple syrup on lightly burnt pancakes, marzipan, nougat
Finish: Medium with the flavours onthe palate. Ends with ashy dryness and gentle oak.
Rating: 86/100
Nose: Dry sherry, oak, raisins, dark cherry chocolate, figs, Arnott’s mint slice biscuits, leather, blackberry jam, bran, ginger.
Palate: Cinnamon, nutmeg, cloves, brown sugar, figs, brazil nuts, leather, a mix of dark jams, mint, dry sherry, bran, oak. Nicely punchy.
Finish: Medium length. An excellent balance of sweet and dry flavours.
Last Word: I’ve had the 2009 and this is a few points better. A superbly crafted whisky.
Rating: 90/100
Nose: Sherry, match heads, preserved plums, honey, toffee, medium oak, thickened cream, oats.
Palate: Toasty. Match heads, honey, banana leaf, dry sherry, toffee, candied nuts, nutmeg.
Finish: Short-medium on dry sherry. Matchheads, toffee, honey. Flinty.
Last Word: This reminds me of Highland park 12/18 or Glenfarclas 21. Not really my style of sherried whisky but nothing particularly off either.
Rating: 80/100
Nose: Again, lots going on with fresh young notes of fish oil, tequila blanco, sump oil, lemon, hops, rubber floor mats, cooked pork fat, light peat.
Palate: Zesty. Salt, chilli spice, candied nuts, lemon sherbert, chocolate, hops, malt. Easily drinkable at 60 per cent. Water flattens the palate.
Finish: Long on chocolate, malt, hops, lemon, peat and ash.
Last Word: As with the heavily peated version, you can tell this is a relatively immature spirit but there are no harsh acetone notes. Very promising and, at this stage, the zesty/spicy palate puts it just ahead of the heavily peated for me.
Rating: 79/100
Nose: A surprising amount going on. Fresh young notes of linseed oil, shoe polish, leather, sump oil, honey, lemon cough drops, burnt corn kernels, flat soda water, wort/hops.
Palate: Peat, of course; chocolate, lemon, sump oil, malt, hops. Surprisingly drinkable neat at 60 per cent. Water brings out some toffee.
Finish: Long on the flavours of the palate with an ashy dryness. If this was a new make Scottish single malt, I’d say Caol Ila.
Last Word: Although you can tell this is a relatively immature spirit, there are no harsh acetone notes. Very promising stuff.
Rating: 78/100
Nose: Marmalade, fruit cake, malt, oak, menthol, brown sugar. Sounds sweet but there is a bitter element as well. Water enhances the menthol and oak.
Palate: Cherry ripes. Blackcurrant jubes, menthol, nutmeg, brown sugar, bitter oak, marzipan. Water brings out a lot of hot chili spice.
Finish: Long, but a little unbalanced and on the bitter side.
General comment: Water helps balance this somewhat, adding milk chocolate and blackcurrant that fades to menthol.
Last Word: I like this more some days than others. Score below reflects today’s tasting, which wasn’t its best. I could be 2 or 3 points better on a good day.
Rating: 86/100
Nose: Rich oak over bitter tannins. Pine, dry sherry, varnished wood, a little camphor. Water brings out orange and grapefruit.
Palate: Savoury shapes, clean sherry, slightly bitter orange, pepper, a milk/dark chocolate combo. Water adds fruit tingles.
Finish: Well-balanced chocolate over fruit cake and oak. Drying. Water adds the fruit tingles again which lessens the dryness.
Last Word: Well resolved for a 10-year-old.
Rating: 87/100
Nose: Rich sherry, banana, caramel, butter menthols, brown sugar, wood stain, oak, apricot. Some struck matches.
Palate: Huge hot spices, mixed peel, oak, cocoa, struck matches. Water adds coconut, nougat and ginger.
Finish: Mint chocolate, mixed peel, toffee, tangerine, ginger, struck match, apricot.
General Comment: Bottled on the 6th of september 2011, this may well be the last official bottling from the distillery.
Last Word: Amazing colour for an 11-year-old.
Rating: 86/100
Nose: Blood oranges, lemon, dates, oats, sherry, dry oak, grapefruit, mustard.
Palate: Brutal without water. Raisins, currants, freshly cut timber, oak, nutmeg, nougat, pepper, grapefruit, pikelets.
Finish: Medium on toffee, pikelets, nougat, grapefruit, raisins, coconut and oak.
Rating: 85/100
Nose: Oak, varnish, pine, grapefruit, butter, coconut.
Palate: Lots of coconut, toffee, almonds, dry oak, cinnamon, bran. Springbanky!
Water enhances the coconut and toffee and adds spearmint.
Finish: Medium with the flavours of the palate and a little grassy. Well balanced.
Last Word: I generally enjoy non sherried/lightly sherried Karuizawa.
Rating: 86/100
Nose: Pine, malt, mint, coconut, salt, light oak.
Palate: Malt, toffee, mint chocolate, fresh oak, oily and lots of nougat.
Finish: Short and adds nothing different to the palate. Balanced between sweetness and dry woodyness.
Last Word: Simple but tasty.
Ratings: 82/100
