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.
Nose - Sandalwood IS the word I was needing without realizing it, thank you MoM. Rounded with a little floral note, not much fruit. Palate - Dried raspberry maybe, nice light oakiness, maybe a touch of clove. Finish - A little light to my tastes, vanilla and clove are what I'd call it. Decent length. At first it just smelled like alcohol and tasted like burn, but a few minutes in the glass and a little splash of water cleaned that up. I can see the relationship to the 18 so many of us fell for if I squint a little, and it's not a BAD whisky on its own. But if what you're really looking for is a replacement for the 18 I have some bad news for you.
Demand for Japanese whisky is so high because of what it can be. Expressions such as the Yamazaki 12 and 18 cemented this reputation but, due to years of underproduction followed by sudden demand, the stocks ran dangerously low. The result was rocketing prices for aged expressions and, at the 'low end', poor new NAS bottlings such as this. Without going into the cask make-up, this is both sweet and tannic on the nose but just too woody and dry on the palate with a very short finish. For this money there are far, far better options elsewhere.
Demand for Japanese whisky is so high because of what it can be. Expressions such as the Yamazaki 12 and 18 cemented this reputation but, due to years of underproduction followed by sudden demand, the stocks ran dangerously low. The result was rocketing prices for aged expressions and, at the 'low end', poor new NAS bottlings such as this. Without going into the cask make-up, this is both sweet and tannic on the nose but just too woody and dry on the palate with a very short finish. For this money there are far, far better options elsewhere.
Sorry, but this one’s not for me. However, I have found that many well-known malts just aren’t that enjoyable. Pricewise, for a few more quid, I would have to go with The Balvenie Triple Cask which I could drink all day.
Oh no! This is disappointingly one of the nicest lower end drams for sure. Good value, complex, very well pairing of flavours. Have sampled a few bottles to be sure. Possibly the best under £100
