I picked up a bottle of Kamiki Maltage by chance from one of my favorite local fine whiskey retail establishments as one of my business partners swears by this stuff. After reading several reviews, I went into this taste cautiously optomistic. First of all: Kamiki Maltage is finished in Cedar Casks. That's new and different. But is it a case of " it's different cause no one else wants to use cedar casks?" Or was it a stroke of genius some master distiller in Japan figured out one day? I do typically like Cedar though. I like the smell, it reminds me of a good cigar humidor and it wards away moths ( I hang Cedar rings from my closet ). As you open this bottle you can't help but notice the hype plastered all over the box. London Spirits Silver, Ultimate Spirits Challenge Chairman's Trophy, LA Spirits Awards platinum AND Best World Whiskey Roman Whiskey Festival? This whiskey better not be advertising credentials that weren't well deserved. The nose on this one is a little odd. Smells of straw and something slightly salty and meaty? Weird.. I wonder if I can just smell some savory salty scents after coming off tasting a peated whiskey. Still, I did swap my glass for a fresh one so I am definitely not comingling the smells. The taste has an underlying sweet honey quality about it mixed with some sandalwood. There's a weird funk to this... could it be from the Cedar Casks? Its almost like there's a bit of damp wood taste, like a pile of firewood after a big rain. The finish is super fast. You do get a little bit of sweet tang reminiscent of canned mandarins but its super subtle. Mostly just more of the sweet honey and damp wood. I don't know... this isn't one of my favorites by a long shot but there's stuff in the price range that is way worse. Wouldn't buy it again but it was an interesting change from the norm.