Tastes

Purchased two bottles. One bottled January 28, 2020, and the second bottled August 14, 2019. Japanese market labels. First (bottled 28/1/2020): thin body, harsh alcohol, and unexpectedly a medium-heavy peat. Bourbon casky. Definitely drinkable, but lacking in expected complexity. In a blind tasting, I'd say this was a really good 5 year old whisky. Actually, in some ways it reminds me of Nikka's NAS Yoichi. (3.0 stars for this bottle. I want to give it 2.5, but that seems too low as this is still a quality whisky despite the negatives.) Second (bottled 14/8/2010): More interesting and more complex. Although there's an odd, discordant stomach acid element to the nose. Body slightly more substantial, although not full (definitely not oily). Light-medium bodied. The peat is still there, but more integrated. Flavors: Cypress wood, lemon desserts like lemon curd, peat, honey, chalk, hay, dried apricots faintly in the background, coffee or chocolate, corriander seeds, mushroom, herbal soapiness, buttered greens, oak, those ubiquitous cookies in a tin from grandma, lingering cayenne pepper finish. There's also a very light agave nectar sweetness layered with the peat that reminds me of blanco tequila. (4.25 stars for this bottle). While good, both bottlings seem like they're missing something. Some flavors are mature. Others are kind of hinted at, yet fall short of being concise or defined. And there's no structured narrative to their succession. All the interesting elements are floating around there, but for some reason they just don't quite jell into a revelatory moment. There's also an unrefined and semi-prominent alcohol burn. Certainly worth buying a bottle to try. I think an 18 year old expression will bring the dried apricot notes to the foreground and really make this something notable.