Whisky Connosr
Menu
Buy Whisky Online

Karuizawa 1999 Noh 13 Year Old Sherry Butt #869

Merry Karu-Christmas Part II

0 589

@talexanderReview by @talexander

26th Dec 2014

0

Karuizawa 1999 Noh 13 Year Old Sherry Butt #869
  • Nose
    23
  • Taste
    23
  • Finish
    21
  • Balance
    22
  • Overall
    89

Show rating data charts

Distribution of ratings for this: brand user

This is the first Karuizawa bottled for a US retailer, namely K&L Wine Merchants in California. @cpstecroix and I bought one bottle each, and he was kind enough to provide me with a sample from his, so I don't have to open mine if I don't want to. Whatta guy!!

Distilled in 1999, this malt was matured in a sherry butt for 13 years, yielding 500 bottles in 2013. Bottled by Number One Drinks Company in its "Noh" series, with a gorgeous Japanese Noh theatre mask on the label. Despite its youth, I presume this is highly collectible, though I haven't seen it listed at auction yet (I won't divulge what I paid but it didn't break the bank).

The colour is a deep burgundy. On the nose, extremely rich and savoury: wet forest floor, tobacco leaves, beeswax, prosciutto...even molasses. Cloves. Bitter cocoa and furniture polish (in a good way). Like the Asama, we get some beautiful wood smoke with the addition of a few drops of water. Beautifully done.

More bitter chocolate on the palate, even slightly salty. Orange, dark honey and wild mushroom. Deep and oaky. It doesn't feel like cask strength in the mouth as there is very little alcohol burn. But do add water as it evens out a bit while becoming spicier.

The medium-length finish is mouth-drying, featuring salted chocolate, raisin and ganache. This takes what we found in the Asama, bringing all those beautiful vegetal / meaty notes forward, while at the same time burying those slight sulphurous edges we found in that bottle. Not as elegant, per se - but big and bruising, and seems much older than its thirteen years. Fantastic.

Related Karuizawa reviews

5 comments

broadwayblue commented

K&L sold a pair of these bottles a month or so ago via auction and the winning bid was about $3,200 if I remember correctly...so about $1,600/bottle. That's roughly 12x what they sold them for initially.

As for the whisky, sounds like a great one.

9 years ago 0

@talexander
talexander commented

Wow, that's amazing! We did buy them on initial release so that is a spectacular appreciation - thanks for the info!

9 years ago 0

@paddockjudge
paddockjudge commented

Enjoyable review, great story developing!

9 years ago 0

@Victor
Victor commented

@talexander, tough decision whether to drink your bottle or trade it for 6 other good bottles...how much more will CP let you drink from his bottle? Not enough, I suppose.

9 years ago 0

@talexander
talexander commented

CP's bottle is now gone - he's finished it. Guess that increases the value of my bottle a little bit! If I sold it now, I'd be trading it in for 6 other good bottles...selling it 20 years from now, it'll be a whole other story.

9 years ago 0