Nose: Candied nuts, caramelized orange slices, mixed peel, sweet spices, cloves, cola, leather.
Palate: Mixed peel, caramelized orange slices, caramel, black cherries, wood stain, peach fuzz, cola, red grapes, Christmas cake.
Finish: Leather, mixed peel, cola, cloves and the caramelized orange slices.
Last Word: Nice complexity and I would say a well rounded and refined Karuizawa.
Rating: 90/100
Nose: Big hit of banana to start. Pineapple, peaches, butterscotch, walnuts, sawdust, honeyed porridge, guava, papaya, caramel, oak. Water adds and incense/sweet tobacco note.
Palate: Hot spices of pepper, cayenne, ginger. Some nuttiness, banana, papaya, salt, sawdust, sweetened pink grapefruit, rum such as Ron Zacapa XO Centenario. Water adds dragon fruit and a nicer balance between heat and sweet.
Finish: Papaya, rum, banana, a mineral element, butter menthols, then drying oak and right at the death pineapple.
Last Word: Another strong AMO cask effort from Mars Shinshu.
Rating: 90/100
Nose: Subtle sherry influence or more to the point, not a full blown sherry cask single malt. Quite yeasty not unlike homemade whole meal bread. Raisins, 5 spice, oak, pepper, golden syrup, barley, bran.
Palate: Volume(think loudness) goes up a fair whack compared to the nose. Golden syrup, honey, peanuts, apricots, raisins, cloves, melted butter, oak, 5 spice, salt and fresh ginger heat. A little water adds marzipan.
Finish: Medium length on golden syrup, cloves, caramelized orange slices, 5 spice. Something odd but not awful like devilled eggs(well if you like them). Drying oak.
Last Word: Nice balance between the first cask, hogshead, and the second cask, sherry. A touch of water doesn’t go astray. This one grew on me over the coarse of the tasting. Not a hint of sulphur and very nice at only 12 years old.
Rating: 86/100
*Note: Sample courtesy of Clint at Whiskies R Us.
Nose: Screams Hanyu. Stewed apples, ripe apricots, currents, Japanese temples, strawberry jam, smooth oak.
Palate: Follows the nose closely and adds blueberries, maple syrup, honey, macadamias, nougat, custard powder, all-spice. Every sip a delight.
Finish: Incense, stewed fruits, blueberries, macadamias, all-spice, Wurthers Originals.
Last Word: Another excellent Hanyu from the Final Vintage. An expressive whisky, I only needed 15-20mls to write up the tasting notes. Very much reminiscent of Ichiro’s Malt The Game 2nd Edition.
Rating: 91/100
**Sample courtesy of Clint over at Whiskies R Us.
Well in the flesh at Casa Dramtastic. Most readers would have seen some release images of these. I’ll go out on a limb and say this is the first time both of these have been shown to the general public by someone who now owns them. No need to go into any of the particulars of these bottling’s as you can read about that over at Whiskies R Us. My thoughts are around what it’s like to finally have these babies in my grateful hands.
First thing, is that I had my order in for over a year. Of course I didn’t now when the release would be but I knew I had to be ahead of the game to even have a chance. Nothing is set in stone either, some retailers will/have received an allocation, many won’t. I was lucky enough to be in contact with someone who did and who generously kept me in mind for one of each label. For me this is going to be hard to beat for Japanese whisky release of the year for a number of reasons. It is, as far as I know, the end of the Ichiro’s card series. No more cards or derivatives of playing card games up Akuto-sans sleeve so to speak. Also, the black and white labeled bottling of the Joker is now officially the oldest Hanyu released to date and the fact that it was finished in a Mizunara oak cask at that. No doubt a deliberate choice for a whisky of such significance. Finally, the colour label version of the Joker would seem to be the most ambitious vatting of different cask types of Hanyu yet.
In the photo, the whisky in the B&W Joker looks darker. This is not a trick of the light or angle of the photo, it is darker than the colour Joker. Could be because the colour Joker has some younger whisky in the mix, could be it’s a vatting of different cask types, could be a combination of both or none of the above. They both sure look tasty!
Now for the problem. The colour Joker I purchased for Y12777. In under a week these were already selling in Japan on the resale market for 5 times that price. I have not seen a bottle of the B&W Joker being resold yet, but heaven only knows what they will fetch when they do. That then put these in the, I can only dream of owning one these category for most whisky fans. Supply and demand can be a real bitch sometimes!
So, what am I going to do with mine? Stare at them un-opened for a while for a starters. The B&W will then be put away with the rest of my closed bottles. It’s such a wonderful piece of history that it will be a long time before it is opened. The colour label Joker, I guess I’ll crack that on a whim someday…….
Nose: Fruit jubes, vanilla, a fishy note, oak, raisins, cashews, peach skins.
Palate: Golden syrup, ginger ale, walnuts, dry sherry, pepper coated mixed peel, BBQ sauce.
Finish: Fades quickly with a little mixed peel, pepper, walnut and ginger ale.
Last Word: Solid if not remarkable, at least this is a Karuizawa sherry cask without sulphur!
Rating: 80/100
Thanks to Clint at WRU for the sample. You can check out Clint’s review here.
Nose: Vanilla, banana, oak, orange, toffee, wood stain. Fish sauce, grapefruit, bbq hotplate and some minerals when a fair bit of water is added.
Palate: Massive grunt without water, the banana, oak and orange still show through with some big cayenne pepper heat. A little water smooth’s things a bit and brings out toffee, barbequed corn, sour dough, still plenty of spicy heat though(hot sauce). Even more water brings out vanilla custard, a metallic element though not unpleasant and even a little ash.
Finish: Depends on how much water of coarse but the following are present, grapefruit, toffee, banana, leather satchel, orange, nutmeg, mineral’s, oak, ash, bbq hotplate.
Last Word: A brute that needs taming with a fair splash of water. None the less, I have never had a Mars AWO cask matured whisky that has failed me yet.
Rating: 87/100
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.