Hanyu 1988 19 year old Cask 9307 'Nice Butt'

I wanted to give a few offerings from Hanyu - another closed, though well-reputed - Japanese distillery, and managed to score a few sample size bottles of the stuff. Huzzah! This was a multi-hour vertical of single cask offerings. I started with the youngest, the 19 year old 'Nice Butt' bottle.

Nose: Slightly jammy with red berries and tropical fruit, chocolate malt, and a pervasive saltiness in the undercurrent. Demerara type sugar and rum, anise, herbal liqueur, and dense (if not lightly baked) oranges. (with water) More bourbony wood here, if not just more 'bourbony.' Interesting. Chocolate, pineapple, and a little citric. Pencil shavings/graphite, cigar wrappers - very neat!

Palate: Fairly open here, but still a bit warm on the tongue. Much more tropical fruit on entry, guava, pineapple, and passion fruit. Cool cantaloupe and more fine oranges. The alcohol is a bit out of step and bitter at the end-palate, though not a woody dryness. Just a touch of salt after that. Nice. Let's see how it goes with water. (with water) Fruity and citrus, really about the same, and the bitterness is slightly lessened. Fruit is also less distinct.

Finish: More orangy and tropical fruit melange. Touch of sherry and a grain of salt. This was very good at points, solid at others, and then the bitterness threw me. It wasn't the most complex, though it was a lot of fun. I was surprised with the bourbony nose with water, but it's good bourbon at least. B, and very nearly a B+, but I'm going to save some room for others.

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