Japanese Whisky reviews

I haven’t done a review in a while, and I try to get one in before Passover each year. Tomorrow I’ll be locking up the cabinet until after the holiday. I’ve done this every year so that someone who…

The new Japanese distillery Shizuoka – founded in 2016 – has no less than three stills from the lost legend Karuizawa. Unfortunately two of those are in such bad shape that they can only be used as…

Shizuoka is a new distillery founded in 2016. The owner is Gaia Flow, one of the bigger importers of distilled in Japan who – among others – import the Asta Morris releases. So it comes as no surprise…

Howaitoōku jōryūsho, aka White Oak Distillery, was built in Akashi in 1888. They only produced shochu and sake until 1919, when they got a licence to produce whisky. This was just for the local market…

It's been a few years since the boom yet the grip of anything Japanese whisky adjacent hasn't loosened. It can be hard to find any whisky from known Japanese distiller/producers and even harder to find…

This is a fresh bottle of Nikka Whisky from the Barrel. Being fresh, I've let it sit for about 30min before giving it any attention. I'm acting as a mule for this bottle for someone in a board controlled…

Nikka is cutting even more into their output to be able to re-launch Yoichi and Miyagikyo with an age statement in due course. At this point in time, this bottle is the only one with an age on the label…

The world has gone completely mad about the Chichibu releases, that sell for big bucks… if you first won a ballot to be allowed to buy a bottle, that is. It does not get any crazier than this. This is…

A rather elaborate name for a 4 years old malt, wouldn’t you say? They are mighty proud at Mars’ of the fact that this is a sherry butt that matured in their warehouses in Tsunuki. Well, it’s more than…

Shinshu Mars released this single malt, distilled in 2011, in 2016. It first matured on bourbon- and sherry casks and then got a finish on Japanese red wine casks from Yamanashi. The malt is 5 years old…