Yamazaki 12 Year

So so good. Scotch and full flavor

Similar to bottom shelf ex bourbon highland like balvenie 12, perhaps slightly better due to more subtle apple note. This is the most overrated distillery on the planet. A $15 whisky.

Big, bright, fruity - pineapple, peach, citrus. It is rich and syrupy. There is a pleasant amount of spice upfront, but a sweet caramel washes it out. There is floral honey, a toastiness, and continued clove and cinnamon. The wood really comes out at the end with a slight bitterness and dryness, but there is enough going on to balance it out. This drinks very much like a Highland, which I appreciate about it, but the other notes pop at the right places to distinguish this from other single malts. $115 a bottle is right at the edge to make this a bottle I would not buy again, but can highly recommend someone else does! I still like the Shin 15 more as tops right now of my Japanese bottles, but this is a close second, especially since the Shin 15 is around $90.

Golden color. Smoky, but not overly so. Enough for a seasoned drinker of peat but not too much for someone fairly new to peat. Medium bodied. Very good!

Smooth, smells of glue but tastes good.