Whiskyfun: (Not quite) Live From Japan - Part 2

I’m back in Scotland now and more or less recovered from what was another incredible visit to Japan. It’s hard to convey what a remarkable place Japan is to anyone who hasn’t been there, especially to Westerners. It’s easy to observe the politeness of the culture, the cleanliness and beauty of the cities and towns, the striking peacefulness that can be found in many places and especially the friendliness of the Japanese people themselves. But it all feels a little ineffective at capturing the overall impact that you take away from even the briefest of visits. If you ever get the chance, all I can say is that I would heartily recommend you go. 

Michel Couvreur 31 yo 1967 ‘Very Sherried Single Single’ (56%, OB, sherry)
A super rare, early Michel Couvreur bottling, most probably bottled exclusively for Japan. Colour: coffee/bronze. Nose: very dense and thick old school sherry, with beautiful plummy dark fruits sitting immediately behind that. Damp, booze-soaked Christmas cake. plum wine, five spice and aniseed with many heavy rancio inclusions. With water: beef stock, more plums, ginger powder, star anise and herbal cocktail bitters. A wee aroma of sawn rosewood too. Mouth: powerful and thickly sherried! Wonderfully gelatinous, jammy old school sherry, with prunes in syrup, walnut wine, fresh black coffee with brown sugar, pomegranate molasses and things like fig jam, game stock and drying leathery notes. With water: still superbly powerful and punchy, but yet never too tannic or drying. Old school bodega earthiness, aged Fernet Branca, root beer syrup and hessian. Finish: long, gently drying, more meaty and gamey notes and still full of soft dark fruits and lingering rancio qualities. Comments: a true old style sherry bomb. Absolutely terrific, but you probably need to be physically prepared to take one a large dram of this dark wee beastie! 
SGP: 661 - 91 points. 

Tomatin 27 yo 1962/1989 (46%, Cadenhead Dumpy)
Colour: pale gold. Nose: extremely mechanical, very typical old Cad Dumpy in style, full of tool boxes, rags, oils, bike chain grease and coins. Also bone marrow, punchy olive oil and medicinal embrocations. With time it gathers more and more wonderful citrusy notes, alongside coal soot, herbal teas, lemon zest and bandages. I love it! Mouth: very sooty, very oily, camphory, fatty, mechanical and totally on this old style Cadenhead Dumpy profile once again. Like a retro-futuristic android in distillate form! Develops some elegant citrus and menthol notes, lemon green tea, eucalyptus and this rather grassy ‘Irish’ quality - which I also consider to be pretty typical of old Tomatins more generally. Finish: medium, very grassy, syrupy lemon notes, mentholic and with a lot more olive oil character. Comments: very old school and really immensely, impressively mechanical in profile. I adore this character, although it’s probably a tad excessive which prevents it technically reaching 90, but great development, fun and pleasure is to be had along the way. 
SGP: 572 - 89 points.

Brora 23 yo 1981 (46% First Cask, cask #1556)
Colour: white wine. Nose: pure minerals, beach pebbles, sheep wool oils and lanolin. Not so much a peaty one, as we would expect from this vintage, but really fat and typically ‘Brora’ in terms of distillate weight and waxiness. Mouth: excellent, peppery power and waxy character. Nicely drying, and quite saline too, with this lovely combination of lemon and bitter grapefruit along with coastal impressions. Finish: long, with chalky mineral characteristics persisting, tense coastal vibes, waxes and citrus rinds. Comments: fab, unpeaty, yet ‘big’ Brora that has many alluring echoes of some 1960s Clynelish. 
SGP: 362 - 91 points.

Glenburgie 1963/2003 (40%, Gordon & MacPhail, licensed bottling, sherry)
Colour: amber. Nose: ancient Fins Bois cognac, drenched in crystallised dark fruits, raisins, sultanas and dried exotic fruit chunks. Also quite a lot of typical old school rancio and a whole humidor of unlit, aged cigars. A totally gorgeous nose! Mouth: drier and full of leafy and earthy notes, soft brown sugar, wood resins and more old cognac but with more of a Grande Champagne tilt this time. Finish: good length, drying and earthy with more soft tobacco notes and a little camphor. Comments: a totally stunning nose and a palate with a slight dryness about it, overall still a solid 90 in my view. 
SGP: 551 - 90 points.

Ben Wyvis 27 yo 1972 (45.9%, OB for Japan, cask #745, 187 bottles)
Not every day you get to taste a Ben Wyvis! Remember, Ben Wyvis was single malt made on a pair of pot stills within the Invergordon grain distilling complex between 1965 and 1977; almost all of its production went into blends save for the odd cask here and there. Colour: straw. Nose: a lovely mix of soft green, yellow and exotic fruits. Very ripe, fleshy and luscious, with a delicate scent of soft, feathery peat smoke in the background. Extremely elegant, subtle and charming. Mouth: soft and generously fruity yet again, with a slightly more prominent peat smoke flavour here. There’s also a growing sense of waxiness and a wee impression of mineral oil. A great surprise, and highly distinctive. Finish: medium, more soft waxes, luscious fruit salad notes, delicate smoke and dry cereals. Comments: Seems there was some peated malt being used in 1972, there is also a much earlier 1972 OB under the name ‘Munton & Fison’ which is also distilled from peated malt. I have to say, this was a great surprise and not like too many other contemporary makes from this era.
 SGP: 653 - 90 points.

Dornoch 5 yo 2019/2024 (56.2%, OB, cask #170, 1st fill ex-rye octave, 82 bottles)
This cask belonged to great friend of Whiskyfun, Hideo Yamaoka! Colour: gold. Nose: rye indeed! Many spiced breads, dark winter ales, pinecones and cedar wood, with shaved coconut, eucalyptus and emerging notes of dried mango. With water: develops a fruitier and greener edge, with crushed nettles, delicate exotic fruits and these lovely impressions of older pure pot Irish whiskey. A great, lively tension and freshness once water is added. Mouth: excellent! Very spicy once again, but that is well matched by a richly oily texture, some syrupy fruit character such as fruit salad juices and a little more coconut. Also cannabis resin and wintergreen. With water: once again a greener, tenser and fresher profile emerges. Lovely crisp green apple and gooseberry, nettle and hessian. Finish: long, lots of cupboard spices, fir resins and some tannic fruit teas. Comments: the rather active small cask means the spice can become a little too much at times, but this is otherwise superb, with impressively sharp, vividly fruity and wonderfully textured distillate at work. Up there with the best Dornoch single casks I could try thus far I’d say. 
SGP: 661 - 89 points.

Longmorn 39 yo 1969/2009 ‘Book of Kells’ (58.9%, Gordon & MacPhail for Mash Tun, Kask Tokyo and Japan Import System, cask #5298, refill sherry butt, 460 bottles)
I’ve tried this before but never managed to record formal notes. Colour: deep, orangey gold. Nose: immediately immense! With a solid wall of fruits greeting you. A whole host of preserved dark, green and yellow fruits, also blood orange marmalade, aged Cointreau and Grand Marnier. Astonishingly dense, giving the impression of incredible texture and thickness. With time it rapidly becomes more exotic and opulent, the fruits become riper, more vibrant and begin to include passionfruit, mango and papaya. The fruit is so dominating that you almost forget to mention all these other tertiary notes of roots, herbs, medicines and precious wood resins. Also a finely detailed spice aroma woven between it all. Too much going on to know where to turn. With water: becomes younger, brighter, riper and even fresher which is hard to fathom. Keeps picking up steam, power, intensity and brilliance. Add into the mix some ripe green melon, tangerine and more mango. You feel totally dominated and lost! Mouth: incredible arrival! Breathtaking intensity and syrupy concentrated fruitiness - almost gelatinous in texture! Layer upon layer of exotic, dark and green fruits, in all shades and levels of ripeness and intensity - almost 3D whisky! Behind all that there’s also more of these magnificent rooty, herbal and subtly medicinal aspects. With water: just astonishing, the incredible uplift in intensity and freshness from the nose is mirrored once again here. Waxes, wormwood, camphor, rare spices, an almost obscene burst of fruitiness. Finish: extraordinarily long, resinous, herbal and fruity, maintaining this magnificent concentrated fruity power seemingly without let up. Comments: A masterpiece. A whisky you can only attempt to describe, these measly notes probably leave out much more than they capture. One of those total experiences in whisky that blows your socks off and leaves you scratching your head! 
SGP: 762 - 95 points. 

Springbank 1970/1993 'West Highland Malt - Local Barley' (46%, OB, cask #1767, 280 bottles)
Colour: pale gold. Nose: a wonderful, wildly syrupy waxiness, full of salted flower honeys, coastal freshness and abundantly zesty citrus fruits. Also exotic fruit teas and the most delicate thread of peat smoke. Stunning old Springbank from refill wood. Mouth: wax, honey and green and exotic fruits all in balanced abundance. All supported by coastal freshness, mineral qualities and more of these wafer-thin wisps of peat smoke. Finish: very long, a perfect continuation of all these mineral notes, crystallised honey, dry waxes and feathery, bone-dry peat smoke. Comments: impossible not to adore this totally impeccable and flawless old Springbank. A whisky that’s totally dominated and driven by brilliant distillate character. Also, not to mention, utterly lethal drinkability! 
SGP: 663 - 93 points.

Shizuoka 2019/2023 (55.5%, OB Private Cask, cask #438, bourbon, 60 bottles)
Colour: deep gold. Nose: immediately pretty spicy, a feeling of extractive maturation but with impressive spice detail, fruit preserves, spiced marmalade, toasted coriander seeds, fresh rosewood, sandalwood shaving foam and mustard seed. A big and powerful profile that just about makes an asset of its woodier inclusions. With water: some kind of spiced mango tea! Also some nice subtle waxy notes, sun lotion and shoe leather all emerge. Mouth: pleasingly creamier than expected, more on soft cupboard spices, winter ales, touches of pine resin, camphor, putty and herbal liqueurs. Getting a little more mentholated and piney with time, some feelings of green Chartreuse and strong brewed mint tea. With water: quite syrupy, fat and rather oily in texture now, still very much dominated by spice characteristics and with these intermittent elegant sappy and resinous qualities. Finish: quite long, more exotic hardwood resins, cupboard spices, cedar wood and unlit cigars. Comments: Very good, although I prefer some of the more distillate-forward Shizuokas I’ve tasted, for this one you need to be in the mood for spice – this is a very good example of that more extractive style.
SGP: 471 – 84 points.

Chichibu 2016/2024 (61%, OB, cask #5967, bourbon barrel, 177 bottles)
Colour: pale gold. Nose: a vivid sense of creamy sweetness full of soft yellow plums, dried apricot, lemon tea and wee hints of dried mango. Very classical, attractive and easy-going Chichibu. With water: lilies heavy with pollen, sandalwood and touches of lychee and rosewater. Mouth: superbly zingy and full of tense, sharp green fruitiness. Things like cider apple, gooseberry and crushed nettle. Also some kiwi and lime notes. With water: lovely development with more of these zingy green fruit qualities, but also more coconut, lime leaf and cedar wood. Finish: long, on jasmine tea, camphor, rapeseed oil and some white stone fruits. Comments: love the tense, fruity development of this one, makes for a very entertaining dram. I’d say water is essential to get the full spectrum of character available though. 
SGP: 651 - 89 points.

Yamazakura Asaka 6 yo 2018/2024 (61%, OB ‘Ghost Series No.22 for Aloha Whisky Bar’, cask #6222, 2nd fill bourbon barrel)
Colour: a little prickly, but some lovely notes of white stone fruits, many clean cereal notes, rice wine, white pepper and fennel seed with some impressions of brown bread and bitter ales. With water: underripe green melon, green banana and a feeling of more distillate character being exposed, also something a little sweaty and waxy about it, like yellow wine and cider apple with some grassy notes. Mouth: once again, prickly but with a lot of lush white stone fruit. More assertive, pure cereal notes and white pepper. With water: a lovely medley of soft white and green fruit notes, overall it feels riper and more luscious, with an umami quality that makes me think of ramen - very Japanese! This slight sense of funkiness still remains, but in nice harmony with the fruits. Finish: long, powerfully grassy, peppery and reverting to breads, beers and a little peppery watercress. Comments: some lovely, highly characterful distillate which I think really benefits from the refill wood. These wee funky touches make it really entertaining to taste. 
SGP: 561 - 87 points. 

Glen Grant 14 yo (75 proof, Gordon & MacPhail for Block Grey & Block, early 1970s)
Colour: gold. Nose: typical old Glen Grant, lovely honeys, fruits, waxes, coconut, cedar and hessian. A little coal dust, old mead and lots of dried out, crystallised old honey impressions. Mouth: easy, elegantly drying waxiness, dried citrus peels, exotic fruit teas, pollens, camphor and fir resins. Just great! Finish: surprisingly long, back on dusty coal scuttle vibes, camphor, herbal medicines and a wee speck of peat. Comments: super easy, direct, highly typical old-style Glen Grant. Totally deadly stuff! 
SGP: 562 - 90 points.

Laggan Mill 7 yo 2006/2013 (55.5%, Cooper’s Choice for Shinanoya, sherry hogshead, 300 bottles)
Lagavulin, most probably. Colour: amber. Nose: dense, powerful and tarry peat with thick, viscous sherry. Game salami, smoked venison, roast pheasant, old pinot noir, smoked sea salt and eucalyptus - really impressive! With water: deeply smoky and thick, full of smoked black pepper, natural tar, fir wood resins, soy sauce and ramen with chilli oil. Mouth: youthful and rugged, but similarly impressive with this wonderful fusion of thick sherry and powerful peat. More wood resins, eucalyptus oil, tiger balm and a sort of ‘sooty iodine’ note. With water: very salty and tarry now, some sort of peated Maggi! Finish: looooooong! Still dominated by tar, iodine, salted liquorice, peat and camphor. Comments: A terrific, no nonsense, young sherried Laga. Magnificent salty and umami power, one to leave in bottle for 20-30 years and you could have something totally spellbinding. 
SGP: 477 - 89 points.

Inchgower 25 yo 1998/2024 (48%, Club Qing for Edward Zeng, two bourbon barrels, 193 bottles)
Colour: pale gold. Nose: a soft green, yellow and exotic fruit medley, with cedar wood and gentle waxiness sitting behind that. Gorse flower, white tea, mineral oils, old leather, banana chips and green melon. A wonderfully easy and fruity profile - is it just me, or is Inchgower a little underrated? Mouth: lean, waxy, drying and full of cooking oils, cedar wood, tiny hints of sesame, toasted cereals, beers and preserved yellow and green fruits. Characterful and also highly elegant and easy old whisky. More impressions of soft fruit teas, fruit salad juices and further waxy and soft peppery notes. Finish: good length, drying, peppery, quite a bit of clay, mineral oil, shoe leather and pinecones. Comments: I find Inchgower a really top distillate, it rarely disappoints. Love the soft waxy and fruity interplay with this one, really quite old school in many ways. 
SGP: 561 - 88 points. 

Chichibu 2014/2023 (61.4%, OB for Michiel Wigman, cask #3416, 1st fill bourbon barrel, 166 bottles)
Colour: gold. Nose: wonderfully full of exotic wood spices, resins, camphor, pine needles, tiger balm and hessian cloth. Thick and highly scented whisky that, given a little time, also starts to reveal a more mentholic side with dried mint and eucalyptus oils, also lemon verbena, wintergreen and sandalwood. Love this superbly aromatic and densely populated nose. With water: softens to reveal green tea with honey and lemon, yuzu, sweet rice wine and white miso. Seems to become more and more ‘Japanese’ which is just great. Mouth: very syrupy on arrival in the mouth, textural whisky chock full of spearmint, pine resins, camphor, lime zest, curry leaf and more sandalwood and gorse flower impressions. A lovely balance of spicy and sweet. With water: lemon balm, sweetened olive oil, ginger cordial and more menthol qualities. Finish: long, herbal, nicely umami with quite a bit of firm wood resin and lingering honey and lemon notes. Comments: what I love most here is the loud and clear Japanese accent with which this wee Chichibu speaks. Great concentration, superb texture and clear distillery character. I can see why they would have selected such a cask for this lovely and moving project. 
SGP: 661 - 90 points. 

Chichibu 'Japan Airlines Exclusive' (50%, OB, 400 bottles)
A non-age stated, small batch composed of six different casks, predominantly 1st fill and refill bourbon barrels, with one hogshead and a ‘Chibidaru’ quarter cask involved too. Colour: pale gold. Nose: lemon oil and pinewood sap, also herbal teas, woodruff, dried mint and hints of toasted fennel seed. A lovely roundness to the profile, that also starts to become slightly waxy and honeyed. It definitely ‘shows’ better than it did on the plane. With water: scented candles, subtle aniseed notes, heather ales, wildflowers and their pollens and a slight sappy note. Mouth: again it’s all on lemons, honey and waxes, sort of like a hot toddy pre-mix. Also some subtle herbal cough syrup notes, more resinous hardwood vibes and some coconut shavings and sandalwood as well. With water: doubles down on these lemon and honey notes, with flower honeys, lemon marmalade, white pepper adding a wee bite and some more sandalwood qualities. Finish: medium, with crystalised citrus rinds, delicate exotic fruit teas and more honey and waxy notes. Comments: a charming wee Chichibu, very elegantly composed, but I think it shows best at around 4 feet off the ground rather than 40000.
SGP: 561 – 87 points.

Glenfarclas ‘108’ 12 yo 2012/2024 (61.6%, OB for The Highlander Inn Chichibu, cask #2216, 1st fill sherry butt, 613 bottles)
Much love for the great folks at The Highlander Inn! Colour: amber. Nose: dense, fudgey and with delicate impressions of old leather and dried mint. A style that rather straddles older and more modern versions of ‘sherry cask’. I also find some lovely notes of tobacco leaf and fresh espresso. With water: an Olympic swimmer! All on spiced marmalades, grenadine, strawberry syrup, orange cocktail bitters and hints of clove and nutmeg. Mouth: pretty hot and punchy at cask strength, rather herbal with assertive wood spices, unlit cigars in cedar wood boxes, some treacle and cayenne pepper. With water: much improved with water, as on the nose it develops an effortless, sherried charm. Lots of milk chocolate, coffee and walnut cake, marzipan, clove, cinnamon breakfast cereals and fruit loaf. Perilously sippable now! Finish: long, with many softer dark fruit notes, more wood spices and hints of dark fruit chutneys and boozy Dundee cake. Comments: I would say water is obligatory, but once tamed, it’s a top class modern Farclas! 
SGP: 561 – 88 points.

Glen Elgin 14 yo 2009/2023 (53.3%, Club Qing, cask #806925, 1st fill sherry hogshead, 254 bottles)
Colour: deep amber. Nose: pickled walnuts straight away, along with camphor, leather, walnuts and a generally damp, earthy and pretty old school sherry profile. Surprisingly old school really. With water: prunes in Armagnac, intensifying rancio and hints of kirsch. Mouth: excellent arrival, with a very creamy texture and a superbly old school, rich sherry character with quite a bit of raisiny sweetness sitting alongside walnut wine, black liquorice and salted treacle. With water: getting a tad spicier now, but the sherry remains indubitable with game meats and bacon frazzles. Finish: good length, with many spiced dark fruits, more wood spices and further aged Armagnac notes. Comments: extremely impressive! Some very old school sherry character on display, even if it becomes a tad too spicy at times, the overall effect is a serious and top class sherry bomb! 
SGP: 561 – 89 points.

Port Ellen 16 yo 1980 (46%, First Cask for Direct Wines, cask #89/589/44)
This series was supplied by Signatory and shelters many lovely drams. Colour: white wine: Nose: creamy smokiness, wood ashes, petrol and mineral salts, then that familiar and pleasing Port Ellen ‘grubbiness’. In time that gathers an almost farmyard quality to it. Mouth: big, pure and densely smoky, with a rather compact peat profile and plenty tarry rope. Gets increasingly salty with seawater and soy sauce notes. Simple, but ticking all the right boxes. Finish: medium, some bright lemony notes, more ashes and still pretty coastal and fresh. Comments: a daily glugging Port Ellen, from when such things were possible. 
SGP: 366 – 88 points.

Port Ellen 15 yo 1980/1996 (62.5%, Cadenhead ‘Authentic Collection’)
Colour: straw. Nose: a dazzling cocktail of seawater, petrol and lemon juice! Immensely potent, petrolic and coastal, with a wonderful sense of fatness. With time it reveals a more rugged side with impressions of fisherman’s wellies, creel nets, hessian cloth and oily sheep wool. With water: a more fragrant and elegantly coastal side emerges, I’m also finding it a notch more medicinal with bandages and mercurochrome. Mouth: Brilliant arrival! Thick peat smoke, peppered mackerel, iodine, boiled shellfish, nori and smoked mussels in brine. A stunning richness and vivid intensity, yet with no aggression or intrusion from the high alcohol. With water: brilliant! Chiseled, razor sharp perfection. Broadens slightly without losing any definition, or an iota of power. Finish: very long! Razor sharp still, with more lemon juice, seawater, oyster sauce, smoked sea salt and waxes. Comments: Magnificent young Port Ellen, this whole parcel of 1980 casks from Cadenhead seem to have gone under the radar a little over the years, but I’ve found them consistently terrific, and this one is no exception. 
SGP: 367 – 92 points. 

Port Ellen 20 yo 1982/2002 (61.7%, Anderson & Mortimer Private Reserve, sherry)
A very obscure old bottling, not sure if it was entirely imported into Japan at the time? Colour: ruby/amber. Nose: magnificent intensity, full on natural tar resins, iodine drops, root beer cordial, sarsaparilla and then stunning umami depths full of black olive tapenade, Maggi and salted liquorice. Amazing intensity and concentrated power. With water: a softer side emerges, with a little the sherry influence a little more vocal, quite a few pickled dark fruits, aged balsamic, walnut liqueur and plum wine – anti-maltoporn brigade required please! Mouth: as on the nose, immediate brilliance I’m afraid. Superbly tarry, chock full of pure, dry peat smoke, more olives of both shades, salted liquorice again, soy sauce, dried seaweed and herbal bitters. Perhaps also artichoke liqueur and some ancient pinot noir. This stunning balance of herbal, bitter, earthy and peaty emerges. With water: more of the same but with even more depth and complexity, one of those drams you could write lists and lists of tiny notes for. But I’ll save us both that faff and simply say: call the anti-maltoporn brigade! Finish: outrageously long! More of everything! Sticks to your mouth like roof pitch! Comments: a total star of a Port Ellen, and probably among the small pantheon of truly great old Islay whiskies that meld peat and sherry together in perfect balance. 
SGP: 577 – 93 points.