A good offering from the Kirayoshi Distillery, this Matsui Mizunara Cask has won the double gold in San Francisco's World Spirits Competition, and usually when a Whisky wins prizes, it might not be as good as it claims. I believe this is a nice whisky but nothing too memorable. The bottle has a famous painting as its label, it is one of the "36 views of Mount Fuji" made by Katsushika Hokusai between 1831 and 1833, and it shows the "Manchurian Crane" which is a very rare bird. Bottled at 48%abv, amber color. On the nose, very tropical... maybe unexpected. Pineapples, apples, tropical fruits, white wine, bananas, apricot, maraschino cherries. After the first sip, it revealed pears, vanilla. On the palate, a little straightforward. Very fancy toffee, apple, pepper and cinnamon. It gets dimer and watery as you sip it more, not nice for it to lose flavor. Aftertaste its a little mineral, feels rocky. Also apples, like sider; pears and pepper. Overall this is a very fresh whisky. Very fruity. It is easy to enjoy and very easy for a 48%abv dram, no alcohol whatsoever. I get that this will be great for most people but it is a little boring. I just did not get the japanese profile on this one. My score for it is a fair 85 over 100.