Released in Spring 2014, this is one of two Distiller's Reserve single malt whiskies from Suntory in Japan. This single malt from the Yamazaki distillery is jam-packed with superb red berry notes, gained from the whisky being matured in Bordeaux wine casks and Sherry casks. It also features malt matured in Mizunara casks, adding subtle fragrant oak notes.
Classic Yamazaki strawberries and dried fruits with floral notes coming from the Mizunara cask whisky. Fragrant sandalwood and maybe coconut. Certainly a whisky where you could get lost in its nose!
The dried berries remain lively on the palate (it even develops some raspberry notes along the way), but they're dialled back a bit to make room for light oak, white peach and a small amount of spice.
Vanilla lasts and lasts, with spicy but sweet cinnamon acting as a final flourish.
Top quality Japanese whisky, and excellent value too. Can't go wrong with this, really.
Yamazaki makes great whisky, this is not one. Haven't tried it in a high ball yet but I feel it may be what I resort too. A far cry from the 12 and 18 year
Look, Yamazaki makes some amazing whiskey. This is not one of them.
Have tried NAS from Yoichi, Taketsuru, Miyagikyo and this one. I like this one the least. Def for highball
Great Whiskey.
To me, a 9-10 rating would categorize a whiskey as "classic" and 7-8 as "excellent". While this is a great whiskey, I can not and will not classify this as classic. I will say that the description is relatively accurate in terms of flavor profile, but could be a bit misleading. This is a very smooth drink and the layers of flavor are very subtle. The oak dominates the palate and I would describe the berry component as gentle not "lively".
