The last whisky review I posted before our trip to Japan (and our subsequent summer travels) began was of the 2013 release of the Hakushu Sherry Cask. The first review I have for you now that our travels are over is of another Japanese whisky, the Nikka Pure Malt White. I acquired this bottle many years ago, along with the Pure Malt Black (which I reviewed almost exactly a year ago). A friend picked both up from the duty free at Reykjavik airport in 2012 for all of $22 each. Rub your eyes and read that sentence again. Where the Black was dubbed “Smoky & Mellow” this one bears the words “Salty & Peaty” on the rear label. Where the Black contained a high dose of peated whisky from Nikkas’s Yoichi distillery, the White was described by them as “made mainly with Islay, Scotland type malt”. Now as to whether “Islay, Scotland type malt” means it actually contains Islay whisky or whether it contains whisky made in that style—perhaps from peated barley from Islay—I have no idea. Anyway, I’m looking forward to finally tasting it. Continue reading
Tag Archives: Japanese Whisky
Hakushu Sherry Cask, 2013 Release
By the time this review posts I will hopefully have just landed in Tokyo. To mark my first proper visit to Japan (outside of transit lounges) here is a review of a Japanese whisky.
This is the Hakushu sherry cask release from 2013. I’m too frazzled by last minute packing right now to go look up when these releases began or ended. I know that I’d tried and failed to get my hands on the previous year or two’s releases—I only managed to get this bottle because when the Whisky Exchange sent out their email in January 2014 announcing it was on sale, I was sitting jet lagged in my parents’ flat in Delhi and so managed to jump on it almost instantaneously. I also got a bottle of the Yamazaki Sherry Cask from that 2013 release in that order. That one I ended up selling at auction in the UK a couple of years later when the price it was commanding became ludicrous—I have no regrets about that sale: I sampled that whisky from a friend’s bottle and didn’t think it was anything very special. I’m sure this bottle of the Hakushu Sherry Cask would also be worth a lot of money now (and probably has been for a while). After all, it’s been a long time since there’s been much quality Japanese whisky on the market. But this one I’ve held on to for myself. And here I am now, drinking it. Let’s get to my notes. Continue reading
Nikka Pure Malt Black, “Smoky & Mellow”
Let’s keep the mini-streak of bottles I purchased around the turn of the previous decade going. My spreadsheet tells me that I acquired this bottle of Nikka’s Pure Malt Black, courtesy a friend transiting through the Reykjavik airport in August 2012. My spreadsheet also tells me that the 500 ml bottle cost all of $22 in 2012. This makes me want to both laugh and cry. There is very little good Japanese whisky on the market in the US anymore and none of it is as cheap as this was in 2012 (and it was cheap then too). That much is clear. What is less clear is the makeup of the whisky. Nikka put out a number of these Pure Malt releases (do they still?). In addition to the Black, there was also a White and a Red (apologies to any other colours I may be forgetting). No one was ever sure how they were made. The official line was that these were blends of malts from Nikka’s Miyagikyo and Yoichi distilleries but unofficially they were said to also contain whisky from, at least, the group’s Ben Nevis distillery in Scotland. Anyway, I don’t know why I never opened this bottle (or the bottle of the Pure Malt White my friend got me alongside it) for so many years but it’s now open, and here now are my notes. Continue reading
Yoichi 26, 1987 (SMWS)
Okay, let’s make it three full weeks in a row of reviews of peated whiskies. Like Monday’s Ardmore and Wednesday’s Brora this does not feature full-throated Islay-level peat. In fact, it’s not from the Highlands or even Scotland. But it’s from a distillery whose whisky these days is as scarce as Brora’s: Yoichi, all the way from Hokkaido in Japan. Bottled by the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, this is easily the oldest Yoichi I’ve had—and it’s another sample that I have sat on for a really long time, for no reason that I can determine. I really liked the last 1987 I had (this 23 yo bottled by La Maison Du Whisky) and am hoping that this will be at least as good. The only thing giving me pause is that it was matured in a virgin oak puncheon: 26 years in virgin oak (if this wasn’t a finish) seems like a really long time. My suspicions of of the last virgin oak cask I reviewed (this Glendronach) were proved accurate and this one spent a decade and a half more in the cask. Let’s see if it somehow escaped the curse of over-active oak. Continue reading
Quick Hits: Two Old Karuizawas
Let’s finish up a week of older whiskies. I have two older whiskies today, one from the 1980s and one from the 1970s. Both are Karuizawas. For my opinion on the state of the Karuizawa industrial complex see this post from last year—prices have doubtless shot up even higher since then but everything else still seems applicable. Both of these whiskies were bottled in 2011. The first is a “multi vintage” bottling of four casks from the early-mid 1980s, with the youngest having been filled in 1984. An odd thing you might say to vat four casks of Karuizawa rather than milk them each as single casks—as you’ll see, I have a theory about this below. The other one is a more straightforward single sherry cask release, distilled in 1972 and bottled in 2011. I shudder to think how much either would cost now on the secondary market. I did not purchase either of these samples. Back in the days when I used to purchase a lot of whisky from Whiskybase they would occasionally slip samples of some premium whiskies in with my orders. As I have no memory of buying them this must be how I acquired these (as I did the Glenlivet and Glenury reviewed here). As always with reviews of whiskies I have less than 30 ml of, I am not assigning scores. Continue reading
Yoichi 12, “Peaty and Salty”
Peat week continues. Yesterday I had Batch 010 of the Laphroaig 10 CS. Today’s malt is 2 years older but was never as easily to hand as any iteration of Laphroaig 10 CS. I could be wrong but I believe this was only ever available at the Yoichi distillery; and as that’s on Hokkaido you’d have to be very dedicated to get to it. I have never been to Japan (except in transit), leave alone to Hokkaido and I did not get this at auction either (which is probably the only other place to find it now). I got it via a sample swap some years ago with a fellow whisky geek who had indeed made the journey to Hokkaido. I believe this and a number of others were made available at the distillery as so-called “key malts”, components that went into Nikka’s signature blends—others included “Sherry & Sweet” and “Woody & Vanilla”. I’ve reviewed a number of the other hard-to-get Yoichis I acquired in that sample swap but somehow forgot all about this one. I took the sample with me to Lake Superior earlier this month. I’d hoped to drink it on the rocks by the lake but the mosquitoes made short work of that fantasy. I drank it inside the cabin instead, looking at the lake through a window. Please construct your own metapor. Continue reading
Karuizawa 13, 1997, “Spirit Safe”
Here’s a particularly pointless review to start the month. Japanese whisky as a category has been rather fucked for the last couple of years—and probably will be for more than a couple more. Very little is available, very little of that is worth buying, and what is worth buying is not worth buying at the prices being asked for them. (The one exception is the Nikka Whisky from the Barrel, which is now available in the US for a reportedly good price.) And in the general landscape of fucked Japanese whisky there is little as fucked as Karuizawa, the closed distillery all of whose remaining stock was purchased by a cartel that has figured out how to stoke and exploit an overheated market. For reference, the Whisky Exchange recently released a 29 yo and a 31 yo for £6000 each and you had to enter into a lottery for the privilege of making a fool of yourself by buying one. Then again, no one who is paying that amount of money for a single bottle of whisky is particularly concerned about money. Anyway, the Karuizawa I am reviewing today was released well before all this madness began: in 2010. I don’t know how much this cost then but back then you could purchase 28 yo Karuizawa from the Whisky Exchange for less than $200. I think this was bottled for Whisky Magazine Japan for OXFAM. There was another release that bore this “Spirit Safe” label that was a 19 yo. I have no idea what that was like but let’s see about this one. Continue reading
Chichibu Peated, 2010-2013
This turned out to be Japanese food and whisky week on the blog. I reviewed two Japanese restaurants in the Los Angeles area (Raku in West Hollywood and Osawa in Pasadena) and on Wednesday I had a review of a young Yoichi. And now this Chichibu to close the week. Aha, you’re thinking, what about Monday, you bastard? Didn’t you review a Bowmore then? Well, joke’s on you, cynical interlocutor: Bowmore is owned by Suntory. Not so clever now, are you? Chichibu, however, is not owned by Suntory. It is to the big Japanese producers as Kilchoman is to the big Scottish producers: small, artisanal etc. I believe they started distilling in 2008, which means nothing very old has come on the market from their own spirit. This one is certainly not old. Distilled in 2010 and bottled in 2013 it’s even younger than Wednesday’s Yoichi. It’s also peated. I’m curious to see how it compares with young peated Islay malts. Let’s get right to it. Continue reading
Yoichi 5, Genshu Single Cask 406182
I reviewed a Japanese restaurant yesterday and will have a review of another Japanese restaurant tomorrow. Here in between, therefore, is a review of a Japanese whisky. This marks a dramatic return to my usual practice of pointless reviews (from the perspective of people looking for buying guides): not only is this Yoichi single cask no longer available, it was only ever available at the shop at the distillery—meaning you’d not only had to have gone to Japan to be able to buy it, you’d had to have gone to Hokkaido. I did neither of these things. This sample came to me through a swap, a couple of years ago, with a generous fellow whisky geek—he was also the source of the other Genshu casks I’ve reviewed: a 10 yo, a 15 yo and a 20 yo. I think these were all 500 ml bottles and that the full name of the series is “Taradeshi Genshu”. Who or what that refers to, I’m not sure, and the internet is not being of much help. If you know, please write in below. Continue reading
Hakushu 18
I am a big fan of all the Hakushus I’ve tried (not very many): the 12 yo, the Heavily Peated (not the one released in the US but the original at 48%) and the Bourbon Barrel. I’d always wanted to buy a bottle of the 18 yo as well but failed to do so before the prices of Japanese whisky went through the roof—it’s not available in the US and in the UK now runs about £160 which is way more than I am willing to pay for 18 yo whisky. And so I’m very glad to be able to try it now through a sample swap. I don’t really know anything about how this is made or composed—if you do, please write in below.
Hakushu 18 (43%; from a sample received in a swap)
Nose: Quite fruity at first with apricot and orange peel, but notes of light caramel and toffee soon emerge as well. Some wood polish/over-ripe banana after that. Gets sweeter as it sits, and with more time all the notes marry together. Water makes the nsoe a little muskier/sweatier and also a little grainier. Continue reading