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Dwelling
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| Hello, that is one among our (virtually) each day tastings. Santé! |
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June 30, 2025
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A stroll in new Japan, Half 3 and final
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We nonetheless had two, three or perhaps 4 extra that we wished to attempt; as for the opposite Japanese ones now we have in inventory, that’ll be for later.
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Chichibu 2015/2023 ‘Version 2023’ (53%, OB, 540 bottles) 
A vatting of three casks, one bourbon barrel and two ex-umeshu in line with the again label. As you realize, umeshu is a plum liqueur, although it’s mentioned that these plums are literally a form of apricot, the ‘ume’. Color: gold. Nostril: I’ve had umeshu earlier than, however I couldn’t let you know for sure whether or not what’s coming via right here originates from that, however more than likely. A barely fruity and earthy aspect, with almonds (that should be the stones). What’s charming is the way it reinforces the Japanese character, or what we understand as ‘Japanese’, distancing itself from any ‘worldwide’ model. With water: hints of rubber tree and sap from pine and cherry. Mouth: properly, I do fairly like this sturdy spritz with fewer bubbles. Plums, earth, tangerines, a fizzy aspirin pill (which provides nothing right here) and pickled ginger. With water: very nice fermentary aspect, nonetheless with that mild medicinal word that’s nothing like the same old medicinal whiskies. End: quite lengthy, primarily on mandarin, almonds and nonetheless that earthy aspect. Feedback: I’d think about they used some top-notch umeshu casks, and it reveals. Reality be advised, I didn’t know umeshu was aged in casks.
SGP:551 – 87 factors. |
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Chichibu 2014/2023 (59.5%, OB, for The Whisky Change, The Cyborg Trilogy, Beer cask Imperial stout IPA, cask #11043, 236 bottles) 
In precept, nothing beats a extra pure cask. Definitely not a beer cask of this kind, however you by no means know… Is that this Japanese beer? Or did TWE go for a British brew? Color: gold. Nostril: we’re diving straight into the odd – waxy, fermentary, concentrated orange juice, contemporary cement, Earl Gray, new cuddly toys within the kids’s aisle… With water: proper then, now we’ve received Play-Doh too, and a few linden blossom. Amusing mixture. Mouth (neat): far too soapy for me, truthfully. Citrus shampoo. With water: higher, however this actually is one thing for a cyborg, I have to say. End: lengthy. I don’t assume I perceive something right here. Feedback: is a well-executed bizarre concept nonetheless a bizarre concept? Solutions on a postcard please, they’re again in style! Ignore my rating, it was a cyborg who picked it. No comprendo.
SGP:462 – 83 factors. |
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Alright, I admit it, I’d put aside the supposedly odd Chichibus we had for this… odd session.
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Saburomaru 2021/2024 ‘V Closely Peated’ (48%, OB, Japan) 
This one’s referred to as ‘The Hierophant’. I have to admit, not being a card participant or an excellent scholar of historic Greece, I didn’t even know what a hierophant was till right this moment. Cheers, Wakatsuru! Color: white wine. Nostril: we’re again to the stylistic purity of the earlier ‘IV’ launch, it’s virtually slim, easy, summary, and but very lovely, on, let’s say, contemporary pear smoked with peat and fir wooden. No extra, no much less. Mouth (neat): splendid, summary, chiselled as they are saying. A barely resinous peatiness, on inexperienced apple and lemon. Pretty wee contact of inexperienced pepper. A number of drops of water… change nothing (sensible transfer, S.) End: lengthy, with some chilli showing and extra pepper, which provides much more ‘blade’ to the entire. A great deal of ashes on the aftertaste, together with cigar ash. Feedback: clear strains, flawless, it’s like a Calder or a Miró in a bottle. Very Nineteen Sixties, aesthetically talking.
SGP:467 – 88 factors. |
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Do you consider within the aesthetics of a spirit?
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Saburomaru 2020/2024 ‘IV’ (60.9%, OB, for Abyss Whisky Bar Hong Kong, Japan, bourbon barrel, cask #200158, 179 bottles) 
Color: pale gold. Nostril: the bourbon cask affect smooths issues out additional and brings notes of banana, mango and guava right into a peaty, medicinal ensemble, heavy on hessian, dunnage, bandages, camphor balms and the like. Pure line as soon as once more. With water: oddly, it tightens on iodine tincture and an extinguished hearth. Mouth (neat): lemon juice, hints of myrtle, fir liqueur, pepper liqueur, and forty tonnes of ashes, with a form of quasi-basaltic edge. Don’t ask me why forty. With water: all of it unfolds at round +/-45% vol., with numerous little herbs round mint, liquorice wooden and pomelo, although nonetheless with these truckloads of ash that just about make you cough. Cough, cough… End: lengthy, clear, however with pretty bitters that come to take over. Artichoke liqueurs, inexperienced walnut and so forth. Feedback:
SGP:467 – 90 factors. |
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I consider there are actually fairly a number of younger Japanese distilleries providing pure, exact, very well-made malts, and above all, some not smothered by inconceivable casks sourced from across the Mediterranean. Talking very humbly, I feel our pricey Scottish associates should take inspiration from them, quite than chasing after cut price Bordeaux barrels. On that word, a little bit joke to complete…
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St. Kilian ‘Mizunara’ (54%, OB, Germany, 2023)
A full maturation in mizunara casks, aka Quercus Mongolica, although after all that solely actually carries weight if mentioned maturation went on for greater than three or 4 years. Anyway, we’re not too positive, however we completely love how St. Kilian doesn’t take itself too severely. They need to be giving lectures past Hadrian’s Wall, I say. And promote these things for a fortune. Color, pale gold. Nostril: however after all, this works, with underripe banana skins, fir needles, rustic muesli, a great deal of sourdough and yeast (I imply actually hundreds) with an virtually explosive sourdough character. Süweckla. With water: petrol and engine oil! Mouth (neat): ginger and mint working wild, adopted by pine resin, mashed banana and marzipan. It in all probability received’t sweep the double-gold on the World Whisky Awards (class: German malts with out age assertion, matured in unique casks, bottled between 53% and 55%) however we adore it all the identical. With water: ausgezeichnet. End: lengthy, barely too resinous and mentholated, however that’s possible a part of the pitch, as they are saying in advertising and marketing. Feedback: I adore it. Enjoyable, unlikely, and but severely good. Simply be warned, pipette or teaspoon dilution is hard to get proper, as all the time when there’s heavy oak concerned. Hoppla.
SGP:571 – 87 factors. |
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