Karuizawa 27 Years Old Multi Vintages #1 Noh Whisky 59.1% NV

Professional reviews

Serge Valentin (92)

A rather cool assembly of bourbon and sherry casks, I doubt the label would be legal for a Scotch whisky, but then isn’t Japan rather lawless when it comes to its own whiskies? Colour: coppery amber. Nose: you immediately get the impression that this was a good idea, you have this rather luscious and easy fruitiness emerging from the collision of bourbon and sherry. And ‘easiness’ is a rare thing with Karuizawa I would say. Lots of exotic fruit jams, rare hardwoods, aged teas and a pretty sublime and heady rancio. Wee touches of rose syrup and sultana. Beautiful! With water: really elegant now and full of sticky dark fruits like dates and fig jam. Some miso, treacle pudding and some kind of smoked mint tea. Mouth: big, typically spicy and powerful but also showing a degree of harmony and restraint. Coconut curry, rosewater, lychee, lime jelly, five spice, lightly smoked paprika, chai tea and many dried and crystalised exotic fruits. There’s also a pretty deep earthiness with touches of old school herbal cough medicines and bit of peppery peat smoke. With water: again with this wonderful coconut aspect, more coconut milk on top of smoked cereals, herbal and exotic teas, umami broths, more paprika, dried lime peel, incense and pot pourri. Superb! Really reminiscent in some ways of these pre-war Speyside malts that G&M was issuing with abundance in the 1980s. Finish: long and full of incense, spices, sandalwood, herbal peat smoke, lightly sooty tones and still lots of vivid umami and rancio. Comments: I much prefer this more harmonious style of Karuizawa, you really feel the fusion of a few casks here has tamed the often brutalistic style that this era often displays in single cask form. It’s a shame that Karuizawa is pretty much ‘complete’ now (apart from a few slumbering casks destined for amusing price tags) and that this approach wasn’t take a little more enthusiastically when there were more parcels of stock like this to play with. Anyway, this was great and extremely enjoyable, felt like very ‘pure’ Karuizawa in style.

Whisky Notes (91)

Nose: powerful, with typical Karuizawa notes. Kirsch, leather, blackberry jam, baked apples, roasted almonds, sherry wood, dried figs, eucalyptus, turpentine and varnish, humus, pine needles… Nicely sweet & sour. A classic. Mouth: very intense again, and quite hot. Very sherried. Burnt sugar, roasted hazelnuts, dark chocolate, leather, bitter spices, Seville oranges, cough syrup, pepper, dark tea, smoke and lots of tobacco. Not for the faint-hearted, be prepared for big resonating oak. Finish: long, herbal and spicy. Quite some earthy notes as well.

A good blend of Karuizawa elements.

BOW (92)