A trip to China part 1: Laizhou Distillery


January 18, 2025

Angus's Corner
From our correspondent and
skilled taster Angus MacRaild in Scotland

A trip to China part 1: Laizhou Distillery

I was recently, and rather unexpectedly, sent samples of two different new Chinese distilleries. I haven’t tried any of the various new Chinese whiskies that are beginning to emerge, so I thought we’d do a couple of separate posts exploring these new makes.

Laizhou ‘Blender Inaugural Edition’ (43%, OB, China, single blend, 1,999 bottles, +/-2024)
A new, what we would term, ‘single blend’, from Laizhou Distillery featuring 70% malt and 30% grain, fully matured in 1st fill wood and apparently composed of 52 cask types according to the website. Not sure I could list 52 first fill cask types off the top of my head. Colour: gold. Nose: peaches and cream, with resinous pine wood, caraway and rice wine notes. Also some yellow plums and a touch of coconut and cedar wood. Very easy and elegant and clearly dominated by the richer malt components. Mouth: light but elegant once again, dominated by subtle coconut, jasmine tea and soft herbal notes. What’s most impressive is that, for all the talk of cask type and first fill oak, there’s actually a notable restraint in terms of woodiness. I find it relatively well balanced and easy for a youthful blend. Finish: medium in length, getting spicier and with slightly more grippy and peppery wood. Some green pepper and ginger powder. Comments: a very classy composition that feels like it has been done with real care and precision. For a young blend this is a high score in my book.
SGP: 451 - 80 points.

Laizhou ‘Single Malt Inaugural Edition’ (46%, OB, China, single malt, 2024)
The inaugural single malt release of Laizhou Distillery in China. This should be relatively young in terms of age and apparently is composed of whisky matured in over ten different cask types, including Mongolian oak. Colour: bright orangey gold. Nose: there’s an impressive richness and depth at first, with some feelings of warmer climate maturation influences, such as a thicker ‘fruit salad’ style fruitiness up front. This then evolves quickly to more assertive notes from the wood, such as ground ginger, coconut and a little earthy turmeric impression. But overall, I think they’ve done a very good job in disguising age and not letting oak run riot on the aroma profile. Do so many varying cask influences sort of keep each other in check? Mouth: similar feelings to the nose. Rather a lot of crystallised ginger, fresh orange peel, spiced marmalade and cheng pi (wonderful dried and aged citrus peels). Also wee notes of clove, five spice and aniseed, it does feel rather ‘Chinese’ in a way - not that I am in any way qualified to judge such things. The oak is ever-present but never quite goes over the top, which is good news again. Finish: short-medium, rather prickly with spices, juniper, aniseed, orange liqueur and indeed, some impressions of rice wine. Comments: I find this very impressive, it disguises the more immature and imbalanced aspects of youth without overtly relying of aggressive oak, even though it is clearly displaying significant and varied oak influence. I wonder if all that cask variety is quite a smart trick in that sense? I also like this because it feels clearly like whisky with a Chinese accent that stands distinct from modern Scottish and wider European examples. Now, it’s still pretty young, but should be a fun one to revisit as it evolves…
SGP: 651 - 84 points.

We have a rule on Whiskyfun that we don’t score cask samples, but I think we could have a wee peek at one or two that were included along with these new official bottlings…

Laizhou 2022 / 2024 (66%, OB, XiangXiu yellow wine, cask sample)
Yellow wine is a type of sweet Chinese rice spirit, so this should in theory make a highly distinctive Chinese style of whisky. Colour: deep orangey gold. Nose: rich and funky, with immediate impressions of glue and cheese curds that make you think straight away of some Jamaican rums, only here there’s also some more subtle things like brown sugar, pomegranate molasses and bitter orange marmalade. I would add that it’s also fairly spicy with classical oak spice impressions. With water: becomes much more direct and classical, in the sense that it behaves like a young, active oak matured malt whisky, in a positive sense of that assessment. Rich wood spices, breads, some herbal teas, ointments and putty. Mouth: not as extreme as the nose might have suggested, and even in extreme youth and high ABV this is pretty approachable. It has a more distinctive wood and spice profile on the palate and these funkier aspects are more subdued, overall it shows a funky fruity character, with fruit salad juices and overripe exotic fruits. Also quite a few impressions of strongly brewed, tannic teas and aged, dried fruits. With water: retains this distinctive, overripe, funky fruitiness, also some really strong notes of rice wine come through now, which isn’t at all surprising I suppose. Finish: quite long, a little sappy and peppery, some coconut, oak vanillin and more assorted spiced and fruit teas. Comments: I think it’s very smart that they would use these kinds of domestic casks to build and define a Chinese style of malt whisky. The profile of these casks on their own is rather jarring and discombobulating to a palate used to Scottish, American and European whiskies etc, but you can start to see how they can be real assets in blending.
SGP: 661 - no score.

Let’s do one more…

Laizhou 2022 / 2024 (68%, OB, new Spanish oak medium+ toast, cask sample)
Colour: ruby/amber. Nose: closer to what we’d term modern, highly extractive sherry casks, even though I doubt there’s any sherry involved. What we have is loads of big, toasty, creamy spicy characteristics, with freshly baked pumpernickel bread, spiced winter ales, dark fruit chutneys, cloves, aniseed and bitter dark chocolate. With water: rosewood, pot pourri, cinnamon buns, camphor and varnish. Mouth: undeniably very intense and wood-dominated, it certainly feels like a warm climate has sort of microwaved this cask in a compressed space of time. Having said that, it’s clean and very richly spiced with a balancing influence of bread and beer flavours. With water: heavy, spicy, back on varnish, aniseed, camphor and grippy oak spices. Finish: long and very tannic with bitter oak spices and cocoa. Comments: too extreme for me, but as a blending component, tasted alongside the XiangXiu cask, you really see how marrying and blending all these various cask influences together has been done quite successfully in the inaugural bottling.
SGP: 471 - no score.