Shinshu Mars Komagatake Tsunuki Aging Cask 5183 60% 2016

Professional reviews

BOW (90)

Whisky has been made in Japan for almost a century. Masataka Taketsuru and Shinjiro Torii are regarded as the founding founders of the Japanese whisky industry. At the beginning of the last century, they paid a working visit to Scotland on behalf of the Japanese government. Here they mastered the art of distillation. They took this knowledge with them to Japan to produce whisky here in the same way as in Scotland.
Mars as a company has two different distilleries and three places where the casks are stored, under different climatic conditions. These are the two locations of the distilleries (Shinshu and Tsumuki) and a location on a subtropical island: Yakushima.
From a great height, to the warm coast.
The whisky from this single cask bottling is distilled at the Shinshu distillery at an altitude of almost 800 meters and then placed in the cellars of the Tsunuki distillery in the hot and humid climate of the island of Kyushu to mature. The malt used for this whisky was slightly smoky with a phenol content of 20 ppm. This gives the whisky a herbaceous, floral and even vegetal taste, with a hint of peat smoke in the nose.
Tasting Notes:
Nose: Refined, but spicy. Delicate smoke complemented by notes of vanilla and fresh pears and apples. This is followed by blossom and spices.
Taste: Malt, light earthy tones that turn into vegetal, floral and spicy.
Finish: Long and delicate. The vegetable notes come first, after which fresher fruity flavors emerge, such as pineapple. The aftertaste continues to balance between the fresh notes and spiciness with a very refined trace of smoke.