Tag: japanese whisky

Whisky 2016 – 78-81

78 – SMWS 128.6 Rumbling, reverberating resonances (Penderyn)
Wood glue, turps, banana cream pie, Christmas pud. Huge caramel and banana, sweet and delicious, butter and honey.

79 – SMWS 76.125 Enticing sweetness and attractive wood (Mortlach)
Apricot jam, sponge cake, wood turps, salt and pepper. Rock melon, brown sugar, yoghurt, passionfruit vine, brandy butter, great tropical fruit.

80 – Gaiaflow Eigashima Sakura 2015
Wood, chocolate, cocoa, pepper. Honey to maple syrup, butter, pepper, clove, sarsaparilla, flight dusty note. Wonderful whisky.

81 – Yamazaki Whisky Shop WSO-005 2013 (Red Wine Cask)
Red apple, red wine tannins, maple wood, pastrami (?!?), chiffon cake, ginger. Apples crumble, clean and balanced, candle wax, cinnamon, cloves.

Whisky 2016 – 65-67

65 – SMWS 127.44 Cantina Mexicana (Bruichladdich)
Plastic, sulphur, salt, pulled pork, roasted capsicum and pickled chilies, peppery. Taken aback by the initial sweetness, peppery and chilies, bitter cocoa, mustard fruits, toffee and rubber.

66 – Riverstown Ben Nevis 16 Years
Cream, bourbon, tiramisu, caramel, stewed apricots, candied orange, toasted coconut. Marmalade, toffee, cucumber, cream, pepper, yoghurt.

67 – White Oak Akashi 14 Years (White wine finish)
Beef stock, brown sugar, varnish, turps, leather. Brown sugar, maple, slightly floral, heavy and delicious.

Whisky 2016 – 54-56

54 – Yamazaki Sherry Cask 2016
Woody, musky, cloves and cola, bubblegum, butter, chicos, flapjacks and golden syrup. Vanilla pudding, spiced rum, sarsaparilla, rubber, pepper, rose water cream, woody.

55 – Signatory Bunnahabhain 2003 12 Years (Sherry Butt)
Passion fruit, peaches, toffee, salt, jersey caramels. Coffee trifle, dried apricots, toffee, pear nectar. This really was outstanding!

56 – Port Askaig 100 Proof
Preserved lemons, iodine, seaweed, brown rice, grapes, smoke, caramel. Cardboard, seaweed, smoked butter, kiwi fruit, leather.

Whisky 2016 – 41-42

41 – Karuizawa Asama (bottled 2013 – 1999 & 2000 vintages)
Wood, maple syrup, brown sugar, butter and pancakes. Brown bread, creamy, woody, dried porcini, liquorice all sorts, hot cloves, all spice, lemon pith.

42 – Mars Komagatake Wine Cask Finish 10 Years
Boozy banana bread, yeasty dough, butter cream icing, plastic. Very light on the palate, maraschino cherries, cough medicine, rose cream, autumn leaves.

Whisky 2016 – 37-40 (Bar White Oak)

Opening of Bar White Oak at Whisky and Alement. Rare Japanese whisky incoming for the next couple of months probably until I go to Japan.

37 – Ichiro’s Malt Bartender’s Choice 2015
Yeast, banana bread, grainy, honeydew melon, stone fruit, chocolate mousse. Banana leaf, bitter leaves, salt, brown bread and cold salted butter, orange pith.


38 – Ocean (Karuizawa) Hanshin Tigers (early 2000s)
Cream, wood varnish, salt and white pepper, plump raisins. Figs, prunes, slight salty and bitter notes, very elegant (for a baseball team!), peanuts, ice coffee with whipped cream.


39 – Ichiro’s Malt and EPower Chichubu Casks #1490 and #1683
Honey, toasted grains, pollen, green bananas, pizza dough, toasted banana sandwich. Vanilla cream, cloves, grain bread, bananas.

40 – Mars Komagatake 1988 Cask 555 White American Oak
Wood glue, boot polish, maple syrup, vanilla bean, geranium. Slightly medicinal, maple, wood, Manuka honey, salty, herbaceous, butter, apricot brandy.

Whisky 2016 – 9-11

Hi all – been a bit sick and busy. Haven’t been able to do as many tastings as I would have liked, unfortunately. Anyway, back at it and I had a couple of Adelphi drams. 

  

9 – Adelphi Longmorn 23 Years
Apricot jam, almond biscotti, chicos, marshmallows, nutri-grain, strawberry and cream. Aero bars, milk, nutty, jammy stone fruit, a big mouthful of melted butter.

10 – Adelphi The Glover 14
Herbal, red dates, clove, medicinal, tobacco. Focaccia with salt and thyme, some cream and butter, slight sulfur note. I expected a lot more, given the hype. The 22 year version is very expensive and I may just skip it based on this tasting.

11 – Adelphi Glen Garioch 22
Wood polish, egg white, cucumbers, sultanas, green bananas, maple syrup and butter on pancakes. Butters, rose petals, salt, green herbs, maple syrup.

Favourites of 2015

I’ll probably have a few more drams this year but these have been my favourites for 2015.

49 – SMWS 124.4 (Miyagikyo) Full of Secret Pleasures
Muscat, port, Sherry fino, rubber, dry warmth, oil soaked rags, spices cloves and anise, maple. German spice biscuits, a rubber fire, cocoa, liquorice, toasted bran, so much going on. Jeezus!

70 – Heartwood Beagle 3
Pine resin, the sweet end of turps, marijuana, chocolate, crushed ants, tomato vine. Tobacco, leather, pepper, beef jerky, super powerful vanilla – it’s really chewy and salty. With time pina colada on the nose and beautiful rich thick caramel. Wow! Really impressed. One of the best for 2015.

121 – Ichiro’s Malt 2015 Tokyo International Bar Show Cask 2360
Wow just wow – favourite for the year!! Banana, ice cream, malty bread with butter, tomato paste, fruit tingles, slight vino cotto, CHICOS. Yeast, brown bread, vanilla, banana bread, prunes, plums, grapes.

143 – Whisky Base Ben Nevis
So much honey, aspirin, maple syrup, butter on crumpets. Melted salted butter, cloves and vanilla cream – it’s such a beautifully structured whisky nothing is offensive or is aggressive, pipe tobacco, tiny bit of pineapple and mango.

164 – Cadenhead Glenrothes-Glenlivet 24
Sulphur, gas, maple syrup, wood, chicos, brown tea and hay. Salt, wood, rubber, maple, dried strawberries or maybe strawberry jam, brown sugar, rum, brandy butter, caramel, chocolate and LPG. So damn complex.

Whisky 2015 – 169-170

169 – Suntory Royal (Maybe an 80s bottling)
Toffee, malt, slight vanilla, pineapple cake, chestnuts, stewed apricots and tobacco. Caramel, earl grey tea, mango and tropical fruits.

170 – Palace Bar 14 Year
Hay, green vines, passionfruit, coffee, green bananas, gasoline. Bananas, mangos, slight bitter notes, grilled nectarines, white peach, sour cream and crepes.

Whisky 2015 – 117-122 (The Mash Tun, Meguro, Tokyo)

I had two great nights at The Mash Tun in Meguro, Tokyo. It’s a short walk from Meguro station and by Tokyo standards easy to find.

The Mash Tun has the largest collection of Cadenhead bottlings I’ve seen, maybe close to 40. While many of the locals (in fact now that I think about it all of them) were tucking into Cadenhead, I was there for the Japanese stuff you just can not get in Australia.

  
117 – Ichiro’s Malt – Whisky Talk 2015
Typical Japanese creaminess, cocoa, autumn leaves, salt, slight gassy note, angry dust. Tastes like it smells. Which is unusual. The peat is really subtle. I can taste this in my throat.

118 – Blackadder and Ichiro’s malt 5 year
Chestnut honey, flour, floral, ginger, egg white, clove and cola. Honey and cola. Really delicious. The sweetness is complex like brown/black sugar.

119 – Karuizawa TIBS 2012
Rubber, apricots, chocolate, maple syrup. Rubber, vanilla, pepper, sulfur, clove, salt, maple syrup.

  
120 – Fuji Gotemba Single Grain Blender’s Choice 2014 029/500
Bananas, coconut, formic acid, some acetone, apricots with ice cream. Butter, crushed ants, vanilla, tropical fruits, toasted hazelnuts.

121 – Ichiro’s malt 2015 Tokyo International Bar Show Cask 2360
Wow just wow – favourite for the year!! Banana, ice cream, malty bread with butter, tomato paste, fruit tingles, slight vino cotto, CHICOS. Yeast, brown bread, vanilla, banana bread, prunes, plums, grapes.

  
122 – Hanyu King and 6 of Spades Cask 123 (Grappa Cask)
Slight woody pine notes, vanilla, roses, dried strawberries, chocolate and a bit medicinal. Peppery and spicy, instant coffee, a touch of vanilla, strawberries in a day old chocolate cake, length that lasts forever.