Tag: japanese whisky

Whisky 2015 – 108-111

108 – New World Double Cask Release #1 (port refill port first fill)
Brown bread, butter, malt, vanilla. Vanilla, pepper, malt. Best New World in ages. The huge banana bread thing is gone. More elegant and interesting. Great length due to the subdued sweetness.

109 – SMWS 119.14 (Yamazaki) Raspberry Imperial Stout
Freeze dried raspberries, vino cotto, chocolate, fake cherry flavoring, something green I can’t quite place, some woody notes, egg whites. Raspberries, maraschino cherries, cloves, slight cream, umami, cinnamon.

110 – Silver Seal Glendronach 22 years (Distilled 1990)
Musk sticks, flowers, golden syrup, molasses, honey, vanilla, yoghurt, stewed apricots, chocolate chips, rocky road. Woody, sarsaparilla, creaming soda, butter.

111 – Cadenhead Glendronach 23 year (Distilled 1990)
Coconut lemon cake, almond meal, eggy cake mix, bran. Grain, eggplant, almonds, weak honey and lemon. A bit disappointing next to the Silver Seal.

  

Whisky 2015 – 104-106

104 – Mars Maltage “Cosmo”
Green almonds, pickled onions, tequila, gin botanicals. Thin and kinda gin like with a bit of vanilla, olive brine and salt. Not really a fan.

105 – Ichiro’s Malt Mizunara Wood Release
Initially woody, creamy and crushed ants – had time to open up and now smells quite alcoholic and resiny with like almond hazelnut biscuits and tobacco. Elegant on the pallet, feels like nothing is out of place – vanilla, wood, some tropical fruits.

106 – Adelphi Glenturret 27 Years
Underripe mango, nutty and chocolate, orange zest, zinc(?!). Huge tropical fruit hit turning to the mist of rain, with passion fruit semi freddo and nougat.

Whisky 2015 – 100-103

100 – Adelphi Mortlach 27 Years
Dried orange peel, fruit cake, strawberries, Jerusalem artichokes, chestnut flour. Toffee, green dried herbs, salty, pepper, lollies, cream, vanilla, candle wick, so much in it.

101 – Limerick Selection Slaney Malt 23 Years
Hand cream, vanilla pods, hazel nuts, waxy, some tropical fruit – fruit emphasized and more friendly with water. Gassy, hollow, nut butter, salt, more sulfurous with water.

102 – Suntory Chita Grain
Maple syrup, tropical fruits and crushed ants. Vanilla, brown sugar and mango. So simple and elegant.

103 – Millstone Sherry Cask 12 Years
This Dutch whisky is mental. Huge maple syrup, rubber and spice on the nose. Crepes dripping with maple syrup, salted butter and plump raisins. Love it and so reasonably priced.

   
 

Whisky 2015 – 92-93

92 – SMWS 120.7 (Hakushu) Sweet, fragrant and satisfying
Soy sauce, pepper, cloves. Rubber, vanilla cream, coffee trifle – almost like I’ve taken a spoonful of brown sugar. Quite dry.

93 – Limeburners Sherry Barrel Cask Strength
(You’ll think I’m crazy but the guys and I at Whisky and Alement problem solved this one) Pine wood shavings and (wait for it) frozen McCains pizza, specifically the frozen red capsicum on the pizza. Really vegetal like old cucumbers and wood. Not very nice.

Whisky 2015 – 78-85

Sorry folks… forgot to update.

Benriach and Heartwood are quickly becoming personal favourites.

78 – Benriach 15 Sauternes
Vanilla, cocoa, stewed apricots, crushed ants, rock candy. Vanilla, passion fruit, apricots, salt, cream and a lick of peat.

79 – Benriach 17 Solstice
Heavily peated, medicinal, pine resin, toffee, cherry and woody. Coffee, toffee, slight medicinal note and smoke.

80 – Benriach Peated PX Cask 18
Rubber, toffee apple, butter, cocoa, cream, tobacco, smoke. Medicinal, complex, cream and smoke.

81 – Royal Lochnagar Selected Reserve 2008
Tropical fruit, rock melon, iced coffee, banana bread, biro ink. Banana bread, vanilla, yeast, grain, some flintiness.

82 – White Oak 14
Tar, woody, chocolate and shitloads of leather and tobacco, cola, bit of smoke(?!). Lovely musk sweetness, pepper, brown sugar, green bitterness, cloves, smoked meats.

83 – Hibiki Harmony
Chocolate, honey, vanilla, crushed ants. Light on the palate and then a hit of mango, cream, nutty.

84 – Heartwood Devil May Care
Nutty, rock melon, maple syrup, rose water. Toasted almonds, glue, rubber, fruit, dried figs… Huge vanilla finish. Very good.

85 – Adelphi Glen Keith 21
Bananas, yeasty brown bread, strawberry lip gloss, milk chocolate. Banana sandwich on rye with salted butter.

   
 

Whisky 2015 – 61-63

61 – SMWS 116.20 Fascinating complexity and finesse (Yoichi)
Some real funk to it, young pine, model glue, chocolate mousse, vanilla, citrus and lemon rind. Like I’ve been smoking pastrami and opened the smoker, pepper, understand shiitake from the tasting notes. Very complex.

62 – lagavulin distillers edition 2012
Seaweed, salt, sugar syrup, slight gooseberry. Easy drinking, integrated peat, rain at the seaside and young green twigs.

63 – Ichiro’s Malt Chichibu Chibi Daru 2014 2227/6200
Beautiful clear vanilla, crushed ants, chocolate mousse, apricot, egg whites, salt. Apricots, cream, cigars, toasted grains, intense and such a beautiful fruit sweetness.

Whisky 2015 – 46-49 – SMWS Japanese Madness

 46 – SMWS G13.1 (Chita) A complete revelation
Mango, dried coconut, tropical cordial, powdered ginger, pineapple doused in rum and cinnamon, chocolate, woody notes, marshmallow, vanilla, lime cordial. Ginger, lemonade spider, dry pound cake.

47 – SMWS G12.1 (Nikka) oh so sweet
Banana paddle pops, dulche and marshmallow. Sweet sweet sweet banana lollies and a touch of dried pineapple. It becomes more complex with opening up including hints of my mum’s lime coconut drizzle cake.

48 – SMWS 120.8 (Hakashu) a sweet surge of peat
Soap (in a good way), salt, pepper, popcorn and musk, salted preserved lemon. Bacon drippings, a smokey fruity sugar punch.

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!

Whisky 2015 – 30-32

30 – Nikka 17 Taketsuru

Chestnut flour, cola and vanilla. Green grass, cola, salt, vanilla. Too underpowered for me. 

I had a look at my notes from last year on this one: ‘Honey, toffee, easy. Vanilla and some cola to finish. Not much too it to be honest.’ Glad I’m sorta consistent. 

31 – Redbreast Single Pot Still 21

An incredible nose. Tropical fruits (mangos, lychees) with cream, dust, carob, chocolate, yoghurt. Tropical fruits, long passionfruit, oyster shell, bracken, fresh yeast.   

32 – SMWS 123.8 In the Spanish mountains

Plump raisins, orange zest, brown sugar and hay. Dried peaches and figs, iced tea, milk chocolate, chewy meringue and vanilla cream. 

Whisky 2015 – 19-21

19 – Nikka Coffey Grain
Underwhelming compared with the Malt some candy sweetness but for me little complexity something like spearmint lollies and glue. A bit of chocolate and vanilla on the palate.

20 – Nikka Coffey Malt
Chocolate banana lollies and a slight cola note – love the nose on this thing. Choccy-nana pud, cloves, pepper and powdered ginger.

21 – Connemara Turf Mor
Lovely caramel behind the peat, stone fruits and dried pears. Reminds me of Caol Ila smokey peanuts but then a lovely juicy fruit hit and finally some mushroom earthiness. Must drink more Irish whiskeys.

IMG_3968