| |
Home
Thousands of tastings,
all the music,
all the rambligs
and all the fun
(hopefully!)
Whiskyfun.com
Guaranteed ad-free
copyright 2002-2015
|
 |
|
| Hi, this is one of our (almost) daily tastings. Santé! |
| |
|
| |
| |
April 2, 2015 |
|
  |
|
SHORT RAMBLINGS (too long for Twitter ;-))
About yesterday's post
|
Right, the last paragraphs of yesterday’s post were an April Fool's day trick, I’m afraid we shall not label any NAS as a 3 years old, even if that’s, indeed, its age ‘by omission’, as an excellent Facebooker stated yesterday. Believe me, I was itching to do it, and I’ve got a lot of encouragement to do so (thanks lads and lasses!), but I fear that would make things even more confused than they already are. Would you have some of that Macallan 3 yo, Mr. Whisky Retailer? Nah… Now, my staunch belief remains that the industry should return to more transparency as far as ages are concerned, simply because as consumers and even sometimes as fans, we need to keep trusting them – and because they may actually need our trust. Maybe not today, but sooner or later. Or maybe ask the SWA to allow average ages (I know, no good for NAS that’s actually 5… on average). Because I do also seem to notice a lot of, say discomfort and dissonances within the industry around those issues, beyond any (wrongly?) perceived ‘official and collective disdain and condescension’. I really believe transparency’s the way, and that NAS should belong to rum, bourbon or vodka. Or blends. Because remember, Scotch Malt Whisky’s a superior product. Well, it should be. |
Young Japanese peaty monsters,
Mars vs. Chichibu |
Mars is not a new distillery, it was built in 1985 but it’s been closed down several times in the past and only reopened in 2011. On the other hand, Chichibu started distilling in 2008, and is in the hands of the very talented Ichiro Akuto. |
|
Shinshu Mars 'Komagatake The Revival' 2011/2014 (58%, OB, 6000 bottles)  Shinshu’s the name of the place, it’s not extremely far from Nagano. Colour: white wine. Nose: not unpleasant, but pretty newmake-y, with some bubblegum, pear spirit, pineapple, and a faint grassiness in the background, as well as a rather delicate smokiness. That part starts to take more space after a few seconds, together with a few floral notes. Lilac, perhaps? Improves over time. With water: coal smoke on cider and custard. Again, not unpleasant at all. Mouth (neat): good sweet malt, with body and structure, quite some peat this time, but also a slightly bitter black pepper. A little acrid, but water should help. With water: it helps a lot! Plenty of sweet lemons, quince jelly, liquorice rolls and, perhaps heather honey. I find this almost perfect now, at 3 years of age. Finish: quite long, clean, with a bit of salt. Comments: it’s impressive what water did to this restless baby. Great spirit at only 3. SGP:553 - 85 points. |
|
Chichibu 2009/2014 'In the Mood for Love' (61.7%, OB, for La Maison du Whisky, 1st fill bourbon, cask #641)  Chichibu’s located not too far from Tokyo or say right between Karuizawa and Tokyo. I find the label totally lovely, very MoMA circa 1985. Colour: pale gold. Nose: this one’s whistle-clean after the Mars that, after due reconsideration, was rather fat on the nose. Goes more towards aromatic herbs, eucalyptus, then roots and broken branches. Something beautifully medicinal arises, around ‘natural’ antiseptic, old embrocations and whatnot. With water: crystal-clean smoky and mineral Pouilly-Fumé, then vanilla pods. Mouth (neat): bang! Huge, smoky and mentholated. Punches you right between your eyes, and only a few sweeter notes of tinned oranges and pineapples manage to heal you a bit. Aww… With water: touches of fruity bourbon, then smoky grapefruits and liquorice, then… I’d swear there’s a little macha tea. A touch of coconut too. Finish: quite long, clean, perfectly balanced. Lemony/smoky aftertaste. Comments: quite loved the Mars, love this rightly arty malt even more. Great work Ichiro-san. These bottles already go for £350 these days, proof that NAS isn’t needed. Is it? SGP:553 - 88 points. |
 |
March 2015 |
Favourite recent bottling:
Columban of Iona 23 yo 1991/2014 (57.5%, The Stillman’s, Irish single malt, bourbon barrel, 231 bottles) - WF 91
Favourite older bottling:
Highland Park 35 yo 1973/2009 (56.3%, OB, Velier, Italy, cask #13352) - WF 93
Favourite bang for your buck bottling:
Rock Oyster (46.8%, Douglas Laing, blended malt, 2015) - WF 87 |
Favourite malternative:
Appleton Reserve 20 yo (43%, OB, Jamaica, stone flagon, +/-1970) - WF 92 |
|
|
| |
|
|
|
|
|
|
