G13.1 "A complete revelation" (Chita 4 year old) Japanese Grain

Distillery: Chita (Suntory)
Bottling: Scotch Malt Whisky Society
Age: 4
Distilled: 2011
Bottled: 2014
Strength: 58.3%.
Cask Code: G13.1 "A complete revelation"
Cask Type: Virgin oak puncheon.

Nose: This is very spicy but seedy and woody spices like cinnamon, cassia bark, coriander seeds, fennel seeds. This is punctuated with balsawood and freshly cut timber. Very sweet and syrup like which is like Irn Bru, orange syrup or medicine. Sweet shop confectionary of pineapple cubes and soor plooms. Corn is evident and spiced kebab meat. Desiccated coconut and vanilla.

Palate: Very spicy and lively, but not too hot.

Finish: Finish not as long as I would have expected but the wood spices and orange flavours dominating and turning a touch spirity on the tail.

132.4 Rich, brooding and suggestive (Karuizawa 17 year old)

Distillery: Karuizawa
Bottling: Scotch Malt Whisky Society
Age: 17
Distilled: 1996
Bottled: 2013
Strength: 61.7%.
Cask Code: 132.4 Rich, brooding and suggestive
Cask Type: Refill ex sherry butt.

Following on from a year ago when I reviewed the utterly outstanding 28 year old Karuizawa from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society - http://stilldramming.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/1321-secret-moonlit-garden-dram.html - I have also been hoarding 132.2, 132.3, 132.4 and have just recently received 132.5 from my friend in Australia, and have been quietly working my way through drinking them. With .2 and .4 nearly finished I figured I better put some notes up.

Nose: Big and fruity and much like its older brother 132.2 this could blindly be mistaken for an ex-bourbon with oodles of vanillins, and coconut and what feels more like American oak influence on this butt rather than European oak. Lemon sherbet sweets and baked and salted pineapple. Baked pears with custard. Some sharp cranberry and unripe strawberries. Some delicate smoke coming through not unlike a light Bowmore level of peating, and Cuban cigars. Milk chocolate and cocoa butter. A little lavender just like 132.2 continues the Bowmore comparisons here. Dutch caramel wafers add a further thick and rich sweetness to it. Some treacle and liquorice.

Palate: Fudge and butter scotch. Spice comes through in cinnamon buns, and fennel seeds continue the aniseedy/liquorice elements.

Finish: Floral and dry dusty which is almost Rosebank-like. Nectarines and mandarins.

132.2 Stunning panorama of exotic fruits (Karuizawa 22 year old)

Distillery: Karuizawa
Bottling: Scotch Malt Whisky Society
Age: 22
Distilled: 1991
Bottled: 2013
Strength: 62.4%.
Cask Code: 132.2 Stunning panorama of exotic fruits
Cask Type: Refill ex sherry butt.

Following on from a year ago when I reviewed the utterly outstanding 28 year old Karuizawa from the Scotch Malt Whisky Society - http://stilldramming.blogspot.co.uk/2013/11/1321-secret-moonlit-garden-dram.html - I have also been hoarding 132.2, 132.3, 132.4 and have just recently received 132.5 from my friend in Australia, and have been quietly working my way through drinking them. With .2 and .4 nearly finished I figured I better put some notes up.

Nose: The first thing that comes to me is a green note which is like Jalapeno peppers and tomato salsa, and this carries through in a slight apple vinegar like note. The green apple continues but bruised and sliced with a waxiness. A little mango and passion fruit boosts up the fruitiness with just a touch of lemon. There is white chocolate and almond Toblerone. Some lavender comes through with rose water giving some nice Turkish delight connotations. The sherry influence here is light here. This is much more delicate affair then the 28 year old, and it tends to fall apart a little with water.

Palate: Tart and lively with 62.4% of course with some of those tropical fruits served up alongside vanilla and coconut ice cream, and a bite of oak.

Finish: Plenty of oak in the finish and I now feel like I have been sipping an ex-bourbon dram again. Some strawberry milkshake to finish.

Nikka from the barrel - Japanese Blended Whisky

Distillery: Nikka
Bottling: From the barrel
Age: NAS
Distilled: N/A
Bottled: N/A
Strength: 51.4%

Nose: Things open up instantly with lots of orange and cinnamon candles, and peeling tangerines at halloween. Eating Edinburgh castle rock and a raspberry ripple cone. Coconut ice cream with raspberry sauce, popcorn, butterscotch, and a little sulphury note by way of school pencil rubbers coming through. Barbeque meats with brown sauce.

Palate: In the mouth it is sweet, syrupy and chewy with the orange flavour out a packet of boiled travel sweets. This continues with orange Lucozade. Some soft marshmallow and a little menthol which hints at a touch of sherry element in there? It becomes more savoury as it goes.

Finish: Orange (suprise), long, syrupy and sugary. A little BBQ smoke coming through, paprika and chocolate cranberry.

131.2 Magic carpet in a sweetie shop (Hanyu 13 year old)

Information

Distillery: Hanyu
Bottling: Scotch Malt Whisky Society
Age: 13
Distilled: 2000
Bottled: 2013
Strength: 55.1%.
Cask Code: 131.2 Magic carpet in a sweetie shop
Cask Type: First fill ex-sherry butt.

Following up from my review of the Karuizawa 132.1, is another lovely Japanese dram from yet another closed distillery called Hanyu. This is another sherried malt which shows no signs of rubber which I am very pleased about.

Nose: Lots of cherry on the nose with cherry cola, fizzy cherry cola bottles and more sweeter glazed cherries. There is also a touch of grapefruit tartness. There are some meaty savoury elements which combine with the smoke, and spicy elements which remind me of a cold winter day eating Stornoway Black Pudding and Haggis for breakfast. Mint chocolate milkshakes. I am now standing in a Turkish flea market smelling leather bags, with the smells of roasting meats and spice stalls with garam masala bursting with clove, cinnamon, clove and coriander. Lots of rich toffee in there as well.

Palate: Smoky burnt matches, thick and warming with lots of oak and spice.

Finish: Long, spicy and warming with cherry coke , raspberries, savoury meats and cigars.

132.1 Secret moonlit garden dram (Karuizawa 28 year old)

 

Information

Distillery: Karuizawa
Bottling: Scotch Malt Whisky Society
Age: 28
Distilled: 1984
Bottled: 2013
Strength: 59.9%.
Cask Code: 132.1 Secret moonlit garden dram

Cask Type: refil ex-sherry butt.

 

Sometimes good whisky is like Glasgow buses; you wait ages for one and then three come at once. The buses in question are not only three new distilleries for the Scotch Malt Whisky Society, but three Japanese distilleries: Chichibu (130.1), Hanyu (131.1) and Karuizawa (132.1). The morning of the release in the November "big list" I was on the phone at 10am sharp with hopes of picking up the Chichibu and the Hanyu, but by the time I got through only the Chichibu and the Karuizawa were available but I hadn't really considered the Karuizawa as it is the high end of my price range and sherry casks can be russian roulette with me. I succumbed to the high pressure sales environment and grabbed both the Chichibu and the Karuizawa.

Nose: Eucalyptus and honey cough sweets, black Assam tea, dark roasted coffee beans. Sooty chimneys, dusty lofts and old books. Match boxes and burnt matches. Conifer trees and pine christmas trees. Lots of meaty savoury elements there as haggis and black pudding, soy sauce. Prunes and Raisins. Mint chocolate Viscount biscuits. With a little water it freshens up a little with Cherry Bakewell tarts full of cherry and almonds. Demerara sugar, mocha, Chelsea Whoppers, coal tar soap, chocolate covered brazil nuts, toffee. Rich, deep stewed chutneys and jams.

Palate: Black sports mixture sweets, bitter dark chocolate, chewy, and tarry. Chinese spare ribs in tangy sweet and sour sauce. Black currant jam.

Finish: Long, rich, woody, spicy, smoky, tarry and jammy. Very satisfying.