Fuji Single Malt Japanese Whisky

Vanilla, Caramel, Oak, Cinnamon.

Nose: Light apple and pear, peach, malted milk powder, lots of vanilla and a floral note with solvent overtones. Palate: Soft but bright and shimmering on the arrival with apple, melon, gristy barley and a touch of ginger. It suddenly develops notes of apricot and a honeyed sweetness in the mid palate and then just as quickly it transitions to the late palate where some ash shows up. The texture is fine and it has a little weight. Finish: Medium/Short. The palate falls off quickly leaving residual fruity sweetness marred only by a distinct ethanol intrusion. Summer whisky. Light, breezy and uncluttered. If you don’t like it you’d call it simplistic but it does have a bright, unassuming charm. It reminds me a little of The Deveron, Glen Grant and several other affordable fruity Speyside single malts, but notably when they are young. It also reminds me a little of some young Australian NAS whiskies aged exclusively in bourbon casks. This malt does not try to hide its youth but instead celebrates it, which is fine, and the blender has filled it out with heaps of fragrant vanilla derived from what I think were pretty good casks, including some first fill. Adding water makes it almost absurdly soft and easy to drink while also amplifying the ginger spice note a touch and bringing the ashy quality more to the front. I did not try it in a highball but I think it would be perfectly suited to mixing in long, cooling drinks. Overall I enjoyed this malt and I would not turn down a free pour (thanks @DrRHCMadden for the sample) but I would not buy it and I can’t justify giving it 3 stars. It’s an acceptable “average” grade whisky, but not a recommendation at the price. Tasted from a 30ml sample “Average” : 79/100 (2.75 stars)

The Whisky Club Australia managed to get their hands on the inaugural release of Fuji distilleries single malt which coincides with Fuji’s 50th anniversary. On this release a mixture of ex-Bourbon, French oak red wine barriques and beer casks have been used. And that is all the premium subscription club have made known for this dram. How helpful. Anyway… N: Quite a powerful sweetness with a bit of acetone. Sharp apple and tinned pineapple, crisp biscuity malt, a bit of berries and maybe some nutmeg-cinnamon spiced toasty toffee barrel notes. P: Slightly zingy and almost effervescent? Honeydew melon, tart apple, oaty and honied malt, cinnamon and cloves. A late bright berries and caramel. F: Medium. Juicy fruit fades quickly and leaves an aggressive gripping alcohol presence at the back of the palate that reveals youth in the liquid. Perhaps some lasting honey and chewy malt, but masked by the alcohol heat. If this hadn’t of been a free bottle, I likely would be annoyed. Maybe it needs longer to oxidise a little and soften, but this feels like a middle of the run Irish whisky at best, not Scottish influenced Japanese mastery. Perhaps I have been to long spoiled by recent Skye based sorcery and now things pail in comparison, or perhaps not. Perhaps this is just an average, rushed, newcomer struggling to find its own place? @cascode, I look forward to your thoughts. Distiller whisky taste #265 [Pictured here with an Osumilite from Matsugase, Japan; about 80 km from Mt Fuji. It may not look like much, but the tiny black cog wheel hidden amongst the rhyodacite volcanic matrix is massive for this mineral, which is already exceptionally rare but also typically only exists microscopically. Osumilite is known from high temperature volcanic rocks and very high temperature metamorphics].

NOSE Apple, soft citrus peel, tropical fruit of ripe pineapple, with chocolate wafer and crème brûlée. PALATE Luscious white peach, fresh nectarine Danish, and thick honey over oat porridge with light spice. FINISH Complex with a multi-layered rich aftertaste of cookie dough, sticky nougat and Morello cherries in syrup.