A few Japanese whiskies


October 3, 2024

A few Japanese whiskies
(Many more soon)

It feels like there are more top-quality whiskies in Japan again, beyond the NAS bottles or the blends and malts sourced from abroad that had, for a time, taken centre stage, while the true great Japanese malts seemed to struggle to meet the demand of a selective yet still thirsty audience.

At Wakatsuru - Saburomaru (visit-toyama-japan.com)

In short, it looks like things are easing up, even though prices remain very high, but maybe are there more doom spenders around these days. We’ll be tasting quite a few over the next few days to celebrate this.

Yamazaki ‘Golden Promise 2024 Edition’ (48%, OB, Tsukuriwake Selection)

American oak. Golden Promise is the famed barley that built quite a reputation in Scotland (think ‘M’), providing more texture and aromatic depth, or so it seems to me. I say "seems" because most we’ve sampled were also heavily sherried. Colour: light gold. Nose: heaps of fresh bread, buttery croissants, and a dash of mashed potatoes (50% butter, 50% potatoes), with a hint of wet plaster and fresh grass. A few drops of brut cider and mead, then very ripe apples, yet it remains beautifully dry, still focused on the fresh bread with just a few touches of panettone and snapped twigs. Mouth: indeed, it’s quite oily, led by candied citron, with hints of eucalyptus, followed by ripe bananas and dried apricots. There’s also a return of the bread and quince paste, accompanied by those notes of fresh (unsawn) wood again. Finish: long, very balanced, fairly rich, but still all about the raw ingredients. That is to say, the barley, with some touches of oatcakes. There’s a faint honeyed note in the aftertaste. Comments: you can tell it’s not an old malt, but it’s very well put together (as is the price, one might add). A malt that’s even maltier, in a way.
SGP:451 - 88 points.

Yamazaki ‘Islay Peated 2024 Edition’ (48%, OB, Tsukuriwake Selection)

This isn’t a maturation or finishing in an ex-Laphroaig cask as you might find elsewhere; rather, it’s barley malted at Laphroaig using Islay peat, which was then shipped to Japan for brewing and distillation. Hard not to be curious, really... Colour: white wine. Nose: this is absolutely not Laphroaig, much softer, lighter in terms of smoke (I imagine many of the ppms were lost during transport—unless the malt was deep-frozen?). Beautiful lemon, mint, and oysters, without the medicinal side. There's a lovely, almost maritime freshness, which I really like, as everyone does, I agree. The menthol note is rather unusual. Mouth: here we get a bit of camphor and a hint of mercurochrome, with a touch of fresh coriander, followed by a bit of lime blossom tea with honey. It works extremely well, with a very elegant simplicity. Some oriental spices, but not in the ‘Islay’ style—no tar, smoke, or ashes... Finish: a soft honeyed sweetness, ginger and honey biscuits, with a slight note of mild curry. Comments: excellent for a NAS that’s been thoroughly 'premiumised'.
SGP:553 - 88 points.

BTW, ‘Tsukuriwake’ is a concept in manufacturing, a method of organizing production more efficiently by varying the processes. It seems that it was widely implemented at… Toyota. Think ‘Kaizen’.

Yamazaki 18 yo ‘Mizunara 2024 Edition’ (48%, OB, Tsukuriwake Selection)

We absolutely adored Suntory’s 2023 version, the ‘100th Anniversary’ (WF 91). I believe this isn’t just a Mizunara finishing like you see almost everywhere else; it’s a full maturation. And like the Hakushu 18 that follows, it’s not 'just 18'; it would also contain older malts. Colour: gold. Nose: beautifully layered with various woods—cedar, sandalwood, spruce, and wild cherry—all seamlessly integrated with honey and a touch of brown sugar. Then come the florals—honeysuckle, mandarin liqueur, Earl Grey, and citron liqueur… It's truly stunning. Mouth: sweet courgette flowers in batter, beeswax, honeyed orange zest, followed by quince cake, a touch of pine bud liqueur, even hints of blackcurrant, mandarin, and oak tree honeydew… Finish: long and even more focused on citrus—marmalade or liqueur—with faint hints of mango chutney. Some thyme tea in the aftertaste, likely from the Mizunara. Comments: a truly exceptional whisky, with an unmistakably Japanese character to the palate. No reason to score it differently from the 2023 edition. The NAS 2022 version wasn’t quite in the same league, so to speak.
SGP:551 - 91 points.

Since we're at Suntory...

Hakushu 18 yo ‘Peated Malt 2024 Edition’ (48%, OB, Tsukuriwake Selection)

Now, I haven't the faintest idea if the peat here is from Islay (I don’t believe anyone uses Japanese peat, do they?), but last year's edition was absolutely magnificent and very… Laphroaiggian. That said, Suntory only acquired Beam, which owned Laphroaig since 2005, in 2014. Colour: gold. Nose: curiously, it’s rounder and more honeyed than Yamazaki at first, with soft resins leading the way before moving into a medicinal territory, with camphor and ointments, almost as if you’d smoked some candied tangerines. But it remains wonderfully gentle, with notes of heather honey and white clover. Fresh mastic and fern also make a delicate appearance. Mouth: magnificent, on par with this year’s Yamazaki for me (which wasn’t quite the case in 2023). Pine buds, vegetal tar, grapefruit and myrtle liqueur, a touch of juniper, and loads of fir honeydew. And I do adore fir honeydew, I must say. Finish: more of the same, with everything coming together around that fir bud liqueur. There’s a slight toothpaste note in the aftertaste, but that’s surely the finest, rarest toothpaste in the world. Chlorophyll, eucalyptus, and just a whisper of… old Laphroaig, ha. Comments: it’s incredibly expensive, but also incredibly good.
SGP:563 - 91 points.

Saburomaru 2020/2024 (60%, The Ultimate Spirits by Rudder, bourbon barrel, cask #200122)

We’ve only sampled one Saburomaru malt so far (isn’t this website – ours – dreadful). This malt comes from the Wakatsuru sake and shochu brewery in Tonami, Honshu, and they’ve only been distilling whisky since 2017, focusing solely on peated whisky, malt I suppose. Colour: straw. Nose: it’s powerful and quite acetic, with a touch of brine, lemon juice, a strong fermentary note, soot, and a hint of mezcal or even orange wine… With water: absolutely no change, except for the addition of a bit of engine oil and coal tar. Mouth (neat): explosive, smoky, yet very fruity, with peach at the forefront. You can’t help but think of an excellent, almost saline shochu. With water: superlative, with those smoked vineyard peaches, perhaps smoked over beechwood—something along those lines. It also brings to mind a skin-contact (macerated) Gewurztraminer from Mélanie Pfister here in Alsace. Finish: long, still fermentary and peachy, with a bit of seawater and a touch of varnish. Comments: a terrifically young and rather devilish Japanese whisky, very New-Wave.
SGP:666 - 89 points.

Kanosuke ‘Single Malt’ (48%, OB, France, 2024)

A ‘core’ release, aged in sherry and the company’s own rice shochu casks (Mellowed Kozuru). Colour: gold. Nose: vegetal oils—sunflower and peanut—followed by peanut butter and sesame oil. Add a couple of drops of Riesling and there you have it—must be the shochu influence, no? (Pardon?) In any case, I find it to be a lovely nose. Mouth: peanut butter and Riesling return, now joined by grapefruit, a bit of fresh walnut, and light touches of smoked fish. A delightful, rather unusual acidity really ties it all together. Finish: fairly long, with lemon juice, shellfish, and salted butter caramel. A slightly ashy aftertaste lingers. Comments: I really love the salinity and acidity here; for a core-range whisky, it’s truly excellent, even if it might be ‘not for everyone’ (I hate saying that).
SGP:463 - 88 points.

Magnificent collective effort from the Japanese team today. We’ll be continuing very soon...

(Thank you, KC)

Check the index of all Japanese whiskies we've tasted so far