Tenjaku Japanese Whisky

If you like sake and whiskey, you’ll like this.

Ain't nothing to be proud of.Cheap taste,cheap price.24eur

Pear and butterscotch on the nose for this one. I also get floral notes, very strong ones overall, but I cannot pinpoint anything directly. A little bit of liquor smell? Maybe. When I taste this, I can definitely tell that it is rather light and almost, airy. I find it difficult to pinpoint anything specific. Herbal notes for sure, but its a mystery for me.

The topic of Japanese whisky is divisive; I tend to lean towards the negatively predisposed camp, a position born of all the wrong reasons. Pricing, mis-, dis-, or simply lack of basic information and an absence of standards, should not be drivers of preference; unfortunately they are and this is where we're at currently. Which brings us to Tenjaku whisky. On the bottle it says it is a blend of finest select whisky, a product of Japan bottled at 40% ABV. At first sniff, the nose is funky - funky cereal of boiled sweetcorn and barley, funky vegetal of green grass left unwatered. Add a large dollop of butter into the mix and I should be asking why I'm not gagging. Instead, the aroma is not unpleasant, and I get drawn in for a second sniff of coffee creamers and home made butter cooked popcorn. Dive in further for a third and the set is complete with notes of dry white wine and freshly cut green apples and pears. The mouthfeel is soft and creamy. The arrival runs slightly hot and you can tell this is a young spirit. The taste is light, perhaps watery to some, dominated by apple-flavoured green tea, honey, butterscotch and vanilla cream. Oxidation turns it progressively sweeter, honey turns into treacle and a bitter, woody, note appears at the back. The finish is short, oaky with a hint of pepper, but that's probably the alcohol still running hot. Overall, the Tenjaku was a fun dram to drink. It is a light whisky and perhaps can be dismissed as watery and one-note, but like many things Japanese it asks of your patience and perseverance. I felt I wanted to know more about this whisky but the Tenjaku official website offered zero-value information. Further research yields that the owner is a Japanese producer and distributor of wines and spirits, in turn owned by a larger Japanese distributor of beverages. No mention of a distillery or an IB; there's mention of the master blender's name and confirmation that he used actual Japanese whisky to create this blend, based on 'a mash bill of 86% corn and 14% barley'; it's aged in American white oak bourbon barrels; maturation period is either 3-5, or 4-6 years, depending on whose blog you land on. It took time to find these things out and some of it is not that clear. I bought Tenjaku at a sale price of €20; well worth it and I'd buy again. However, it normally retails for around €35, or $40 in the US, according to Distiller. At that price point it is positioned with the 12-year olds of Glenfiddich, Glenlivet and Deanston, and the Irish NAS of Teeling Single Grain and Green Spot; is it still worth it? Thus we come full circle. PS: If you are interested in the non-virgin oak, corn/barley mash bill taste profile, try the aforementioned Teeling or the Kilbeggan Single Grain.