Nonjatta

Mars Komagatake 22yo and 24yo

noreply@blogger.com (Nonjatta) — Sat, 25 May 2013 08:07:00 +0000

Post by Stefan Van Eycken, Tokyo

The two new Mars releases we wrote about in our TIBS/Whisky Live 2013 report have now been released. Just to refresh your memory: there’s a 22yo and a 24yo, and both are vattings of 4 casks, but they’re very different, indeed.

The Mars Komagatake 22yo is a vatting of two American White Oak casks (#1042 and #1039), an ex-sherry cask (#384) and a refill (ex-Scotch) cask (#481), bottled at 43% abv (750ml) and with an outturn of 1,359 bottles. This retails for around 9,000 yen. Then, there’s the 24yo – and that’s really special. During yearly routine checks of their mature stock, the whisky makers at Mars discovered a quartet of ex-bourbon casks that they really liked. On further inspection, it became clear that the level in each of the casks was very low and that a release as single cask(s) was out of the question. So, they put the contents of the 4 casks together and bottled them at vatting strength (58%abv, also 750ml). The outturn? A mere 120 bottles.

It shouldn't be too hard to find the 22yo. To secure a bottle of the 24yo however, you may have to jump through a few hoops (no pun intended). It would surprise me if the few retailers who actually managed to get hold of a few bottles have the chance to put it on their shelves/online. But you never know…

Read more about Hombo Mars Distillery here.

Chichibu 3yo for Whisky Talk Fukuoka 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Nonjatta) — Sat, 25 May 2013 06:49:00 +0000

Post by Stefan Van Eycken, Tokyo

"Whisky Talk" is the highlight of the year for whisky enthusiasts based in Fukuoka. The third edition was held last weekend and it's clear that the organizers have a soft spot for Ichiro's Malts. For the 1st (2011) and 2nd edition (2012), they bottled two young Hanyu casks with eye-catching labels sporting a wolf and a crane respectively. For this year's bottling, they're continuing the animal theme with what looks like a beaver, but this time they're going for a 3-year old Chichibu. It should be available soon - priced at 11,000 yen - so keep an eye out for it, if you're a fan of this young distillery's output.

Read more about Chichibu Distillery here.

Memories of Karuizawa 3: 1996/2013

noreply@blogger.com (Nonjatta) — Fri, 24 May 2013 08:02:00 +0000

Post by Stefan Van Eycken, Tokyo

Today sees the official release of the 3rd Memories of Karuizawa. It’s available to members of Bond#1 right now; from next week, it will also be on the shelves of selected retailers here in Japan.

The 3rd release is one of the few casks left from the 1996 vintage, and it is – in fact – a sister cask (#3684) of our very own Nonjatta Karuizawa (#3681). There’s definitely family resemblance so it won’t surprise you to read that we are quite fond of this new single cask.

On the nose, there’s fruit, of course – assorted berries, dried apricots and raspberry meringue – but there’s also fresh ginger ale and grass in early summer with some very subtle wood smoke in the background. After a while, a nice orange marmalade note comes to the fore, accompanied by over-ripe kiwis, honey-roasted almonds, shiso leaf and a touch of eucalyptus. On the palate, it packs quite a punch neat: orange zest and raspberries on the attack, then slightly under-ripe grapefruit and gooseberries. It really needs water – only then does it reveal its charms on the palate: milk chocolate, hazelnut cream, nougat, candied orange peel again, ramune candy, then caramel pear mousse and pumpkin seed spread. Resistance is futile… it’s a phenomenal amalgam of flavours. The finish is long and lingering on sweet jam notes but with a lovely tart edge.

Now for the bad news: there are only 303 bottles. Since no one will bother to ready any further, we’ll just sign off wishing you a nice weekend... and it will be if you manage to score a bottle of this.

Read more about Karuizawa Distillery here.

Hakushu Heavily Peated 2013

noreply@blogger.com (Nonjatta) — Wed, 22 May 2013 13:56:00 +0000

Post by Stefan Van Eycken, Tokyo

Suntory has just announced the follow up to their widely acclaimed “Hakushu Sherry Cask 2013” (released in February). On July 2nd, the “Hakushu Heavily Peated 2013” will go on sale nationwide (Japan only). It’s bottled at 48%abv and will retail for about 9,000 yen. It’s a limited edition of 3,000 bottles and if the response is anything like what we witnessed earlier this year with the “Sherry Cask”, it won’t be around for very long. Mark the date in your agenda now or start preparing yourself for disappointment.

Read more about Hakushu Distillery here.

The “Asama Casks” and Karuizawa Cask-Strength “1st Release” for Taiwan

noreply@blogger.com (Nonjatta) — Tue, 21 May 2013 14:24:00 +0000

Post by Stefan Van Eycken, Tokyo

When Number One Drinks bought the entire remaining inventory of Karuizawa distillery, they quickly discovered the vast majority of the stock was from the 1999 and 2000 vintages, the final years of production. It was immediately clear that this relatively young malt needed to be categorized as soon as possible – there was loads of it and it was uneven in terms of taste profile – and so they brought in their Master Blender who tasted every single cask. Some casks were earmarked as “immediately ready to be bottled as single casks”, but most needed re-racking. (A few were rejected altogether.) The stock that had been put aside for vatting was nosed and tasted again to confirm the relative maturity and the taste profile. It was then decided to create two different vattings, both of which involved bringing together the liquid from a number of casks and then returning the contents to the original casks, all of which were still very active sherry butts. Obviously, since each of the original casks was less than full, fewer casks were needed to re-rack the vatted contents.

The first batch was a vatting of 77 casks – re-racked into 60 casks – that were considered to be mature already. These 77 casks were the ones needed to produce the final profile the Master Blender was looking for. The second vatting was of those casks he felt needed more maturation, with 59 casks re-racked into 46 casks. This was all carried out in late 2011, early 2012. Since then, there have been a few releases drawn from these re-racked 1999/2000 casks – let’s call them the “Asama casks”, for the sake of brevity. Everything so far has been from the first vatting:

(1) the “Asama” (46%), released in 2012 – which was first available in Sweden, and then in other markets as well;

(2) two single marrying-casks for the Tokyo International Bar Show / Whisky Live 2012, bottled at cask-strength;

(3) two “Spirit of Asama” releases for The Whisky Exchange, bottled at 48% and 55% abv respectively;

(4) a cask-strength version (61.7%) called “1st Release” for Taiwan

A fifth one – a 2013 version of the first vatting, which has benefitted from 18 months of marriage, bottled at 50.5% and with new packaging – will be launched over the summer.

Today, we’ll focus on the recent “1st Release” for Taiwan. On the nose, the initial impressions are dried fruits (raisins, dates), prune juice, porcini, polished leather and a hint of rosemary – it’s reminiscent of some A’bunadhs but with a more earthy, vegetal dimension. After a while, there are subtle hints of virgin oak, menthol, after eights, raspberry sauce, liquorice allsorts and duck a l’orange. There’s also a gentle underlying smokiness, which adds further depth. Quite an intriguing nose. Neat on the palate, you get orange zest, assorted dried fruits with prunes quite prominent again, candied ginger and white pepper but also steamed new potatoes, burdock soup, roasted capsicum and a bit of chicory. On paper – well, on the screen – it doesn’t sound like that would work, but it does and marvelously so. It’s very drinkable undiluted, but it swims well, too. Water makes it more fresh on the nose – with grassy notes and hints of overripe pears and honeydew melon – and brings out orange pound cake and lemon sablés. It’s a versatile dram and you can really tweak it to your taste and to the mood you’re in. The finish is medium-long on milk chocolate spiked with cointreau. Fabulous.

This isn’t something that was hastily thrown together. Someone with a clear vision was behind this, but there’s nothing forced about it at all. It’s as if someone knew exactly what the liquid in these casks was dreaming of being - but couldn’t be on its own - and then found a way to make it happen.

Read more about Karuizawa Distillery here.

“Deep Harmony” – a new, limited Hibiki

noreply@blogger.com (Nonjatta) — Fri, 17 May 2013 10:22:00 +0000

Post by Stefan Van Eycken, Tokyo

A few days ago, Suntory released a new no-age-statement Hibiki entitled “Deep Harmony”. This new edition is built around Hakushu malt matured in ex-red wine casks and Chita grain matured in ex-sherry casks. The blenders consider this to be a variation on the sweet and elegant taste profile of the Hibiki 17 but it’s quite unique because of the use of ex-red wine cask matured Hakushu. It’s bottled at 43% abv, and retails for 13,000 yen. The label is a ‘sakuranezu’ [a traditional Japanese sort of mauve] coloured special type of washi, suggestive of grapes (in reference to the red wine and sherry origin of the casks used to mature the components). It is exclusively available to the bar trade here in Japan, but I’m sure some bottles will find their way on local auction sites (as with the bar-exclusive umeshu-finished Yamazaki a few years ago). Stay tuned for detailed tasting notes.

Nikka Coffey Grain also to make debut in US

noreply@blogger.com (Nonjatta) — Tue, 14 May 2013 12:38:00 +0000

Post by Chris of the WhiskyWall

It appears that Nikka Whisky is confident enough to introduce another expression to its US line up. Interestingly though it is a grain whisky release instead of a malt or even a blended release (wouldn't we all love to see Nikka From the Barrel here in the US?). It has not been officially announced by Nikka Whisky or their importer Anchor Distilling Co. but Nikka looks poised to release their Coffey Grain expression here shortly as it has recently cleared the Alcohol and Tobacco Tax and Trade Bureau (TTB) labeling certification process. This coincides with Nikka's imminent launch of the Coffey Grain in Japan, as announced on Nonjatta a few weeks ago. There's no word on what the price point will be at this time.

It will be interesting to see how drinkers react to a Japanese grain whisky - maybe Nikka has its sights set on taking some of the popular cocktail market with this release. Either way, I am glad that Nikka is moving towards introducing more of its expressions to the US market.

Editor's note: Label photos from TTB application approval

Karuizawas for Taiwan: 1970 Geisha with Paper Crane

noreply@blogger.com (Nonjatta) — Mon, 13 May 2013 03:00:00 +0000

Post by Stefan Van Eycken, Tokyo

We’re continuing our series of Karuizawas for Taiwan with the “Geisha with Paper Crane” 1970 (cask #6227, 61.9%abv) bottled last year.

On the nose, it’s a feast of griottines, cherry pie, strawberries in confectioners’ sugar and frangipane. But it’s a feast outdoors, because underneath, there’s grass after rain, earthy tones (burdock and murasaki imo [‘purple yams’]) and also hints of wood smoke, a bit like a campfire after rain. Later, we return to fruitier realms: roasted apple pie, white peaches, then cherries again. Water makes the red fruit notes even more prominent, but this is at the expense of some of the lovely secondary notes.

On the palate, things get really wild: orange bitters, candied orange peel, candied ginger, gooseberries, fresh rhubarb, also fresh coriander and lemongrass. The attack is incredibly sharp, fresh and incisive – a whirlpool of sour, bitter and (not too) sweet. Emerging out of this attack are notes of sudachi, celery, some apricot Danish and a hint of Pineapple Lumps (the New Zealand delicacy). This quickly segues into the finish – feint traces of kiwi jam, brambles and orange sorbet – but that’s very short as well. You may get a subtle hint of banana mousse and Jonagold apple peel later, but now we’re really stargazing with sunglasses … on a cloudy day.

In Japan, paper cranes symbolize hope, longevity and good fortune. It’s tempting to interpret the label as a sort of oblique comment on the liquid in the bottle because it’s precisely in the longevity department that this whisky is lacking, which is a bit unfortunate. The nose is incredibly seductive – promises a lot – and the attack on the palate is phenomenally intense, but the euphoria tapers off far too quickly. When things are this good, one naturally wants… well, more – so it’s a bit of a frustrating experience. This whisky is sort of like a musical tone with the attack and decay of a bell but the sustain and release of a xylophone, if you can imagine that.

In our experience, Karuizawas for Taiwan are usually top drawer; this 1970 is a bit of an anomaly, but then, you can’t win them all. Next time, we’ll check out another geisha – without paper cranes, mercifully – and an old demon. Pleasant company, surely…

Read more about Karuizawa Distillery here.

Final Curtain Call for Yamazaki 10 and Hakushu 10

noreply@blogger.com (Nonjatta) — Fri, 10 May 2013 13:05:00 +0000

Post by Stefan Van Eycken, Tokyo

When Suntory introduced their no-age statement versions of the Yamazaki and Hakushu single malt in May 2012, two things were immediately clear: (1) stocks of mature whisky were running low, and (2) the days of the 10-year old Yamazaki and Hakushu were numbered. Not in their wildest dreams two decades ago could the people at Suntory imagine that demand for their whiskies – both domestically and abroad – would be this high. When the NAS Yamazaki and Hakushu were introduced, they were obvious replacements for the resp. 10-year olds. Similarly priced and with the 10yo too close for comfort to the 12yo (but, significantly, not in price – the 12yo retailing for twice as much as the 10yo), it really felt like a changing of the guard at both distilleries. Suntory definitely closed the chapter on the Yamazaki 10 and Hakushu 10 at the end of March, which is when the last few cases were sold. Now, retailers are starting to draw the consumer’s attention to the fact that the 10-year olds are drying up quickly. So, if you haven’t tried these yet, it’s now or never. And if you have, then this may be your last chance to put a few bottles in the cabinet. It really is the final curtain call for the Yamazaki and Hakushu 10.

From TIBS/Whisky Live 2013: A chat with Douglas Cook about the TIBS Glendronach and Benriach bottlings

noreply@blogger.com (Nonjatta) — Wed, 08 May 2013 12:33:00 +0000

Post by Stefan Van Eycken, Tokyo

We were delighted to be able to spend some quality time with Douglas Cook of Benriach / Glendronach / Glenglassaugh at TIBS and we asked him about the special bottlings for the BarShow. We started with the Glendronach 2002 Sauternes Hogshead (10yo, #2534, 55.1%abv).

Douglas: A sauternes-finished single cask is actually quite unusual for Glendronach. At Glendronach, we tend to only use sherry casks for the maturation of our whisky. However, we do have a small quantity of bourbon, port and sauternes casks, and we use those casks for finishing. In this case, what we’ve done is: we’ve used a bourbon cask for nine years and finished it in a sauternes cask for about one year. So it’s actually one of the younger Glendronach bottlings we’ve ever done.

Nonjatta: It seems like there are a lot of ex-bourbon cask Glendronachs from 2002 around. What happened in 2002?

Douglas: It’s an important date because between 1996 and 2002, the distillery was mothballed. Production commenced again in 2002 and the new owners started to fill bourbon casks. That’s just part of the history of the distillery. Over time, however, as the new owners since 2008, we’ve started to re-rack – to fill sherry casks with some of those ex-bourbon casks. I suppose the whisky evolves a little bit, but we want to bring it back to the origins of sherry cask maturation. Today, actually, to find a bourbon cask from 2002 is quite hard. I honestly think there’s only a handful of them left. Sometimes my customers are interested in buying one and I speak with our director and am informed there are actually very few available to sell because they’ve been re-racked into sherry already.

In this case, what we looked for was something slightly different. We didn’t want to go down the road of sherry. We wanted to show the Glendronach spirit with a different type of maturation. So it was quite unique to have a Glendronach Sauternes 10yo.

Nonjatta: Sauternes is part of the regular Glendronach range. Is this TIBS bottling a single cask version of that?

Douglas: Well, the core product we have is a 14yo and it’s been in sauternes longer, probably closer to about 18 months to 2 years. It really depends on the cask in the batch. But in the case of the single cask bottling we’ve done for Japan, it was much shorter, so there’s only a hint of sauternes. The bourbon is much more dominant than the sauternes. It just gives you that slight grape aroma, which – obviously – comes from the sauternes.

Nonjatta: Since 2008, is wood policy at Glendronach exclusively ex-sherry, or are there other – more unusual and/or experimental – things in the works as well?

Douglas: To be honest, it’s really sherry casks. We have regular delivery of sherry casks from Jerez in the south of Spain – Pedro Ximinez puncheons and Oloroso butts, generally – so we’re trying to keep Glendronach sherry-based, as simple as possible, really, just concentrating on sherry maturation. However, that’s an expensive decision to make because it’s about 600 GBP for a good quality sherry butt. I suppose, in a way, a lot of other distilleries would choose to use more bourbon but we recognize the importance of keeping Glendronach’s traditional style.

Nonjatta: Here in Japan – as elsewhere – whisky enthusiasts are very keen on 1971 and 1972 Glendronachs. Are there many casks from the early 70s left?

Douglas: I wouldn’t say many. There are still quite a few available, but because we want to conserve those for future releases, we’ve actually had to take the unpopular decision of slowing down the sales of single casks of those. It’s about being cruel to be kind. Many people would like to buy them now, and the reality is we could easily sell them with all the emerging markets that are very keen to buy these old vintages, but we’d rather sacrifice those sales now so that we can satisfy our customers worldwide with future limited releases. We can’t really think about one market alone – we’ve got to think about everyone and that’s why we’ve taken that decision.

Nonjatta: Moving on to the Benriach for the BarShow – a 1985 hogshead (27yo, #3091, 42.2%abv) – I guess you’re also trying to conserve your casks from the 70s at that distillery.

Douglas: With Benriach, we were looking at certain vintages and, over the years, Benriach 1976 has become iconic. However, we feel that’s it actually unfair to a lot of the other vintages – to the 90s, or even younger, say 2000. So, I’ve been encouraging all our customers to look at vintages which are maybe not so well known, like the 80s. And in the 80s, we’ve got a variety of interesting casks. We selected quite a lot of samples from the distillery and the option in the case of the TIBS bottling was to go for something that was very classic Speyside, classic Benriach. It was not so much tropical fruits, but more light fruits, like apples; it also has those lovely sweet honey notes and sweet oak spices as opposed to the typical 1976 pineapple and passionfruit. We wanted to give Japanese whisky lovers the chance to experience a Benriach from a completely different era, a different period of its history but also very classic Speyside.

At Benriach, I suppose we’re a lot more progressive and innovative in terms of the styles of whisky that we create, compared with Glendronach. We have the peated range, of course, we have wood finishes, we have peated wood finishes, triple distillation, and so on. With Benriach we have quite a variety of styles, but we noticed the Japanese consumers actually like the classic styles and this was a chance to bring a new vintage to the market, which was less known than the older ones.

Nonjatta: Is this a worldwide strategy, taking attention away from the legendary 70s?

Douglas: Well, we have to do that. We still want to satisfy the consumer’s demand for single cask vintages, but once the 70s are gone, they’re gone. That’s part of it – I wouldn’t deny that. But actually, we find that consumers sometimes don’t give other vintages a chance because they’ve heard that one vintage is particularly good. And actually, it’s not like in wine; it’s more related to the cask and there are so many different factors. It was partly my influence, as well. I really wanted the customers to stop thinking about just vintages and actually think about the whisky, even if it’s from a year that’s not iconic. And that’s really what I would like people to appreciate.

Hakushu Grain Whisky Facility in production

noreply@blogger.com (Nonjatta) — Tue, 07 May 2013 09:39:00 +0000

Post by Stefan Van Eycken, Tokyo

Suntory has just announced their new Hakushu Grain Whisky Facility – part of their Hakushu plant – is in production. It was set up in December 2010. The long testing period is now officially over and grain whisky is being produced there as we write this. It is much smaller than their Chita distillery (SunGrain) – about 1/10th the size – and serves an altogether different purpose. SunGrain will keep supplying Suntory with the bulk of their grain whisky, but the idea with the Hakushu Grain Facility is to use it as a place to experiment with different grains – other than corn, that is – and different grain bills and to also closely look at other factors influencing the final product (yeast strains, etc) so that they have a wider variety of grain whisky at their disposal in the future to perfect their blends.

This is incredibly exciting news and further proof – if any were needed – that distillers in Japan are not content to rest on their laurels, but are always looking to take their art to a higher level.

Two 1977 Karuizawas for Taiwan

noreply@blogger.com (Nonjatta) — Sat, 04 May 2013 02:29:00 +0000

Post by Stefan Van Eycken, Tokyo

Today, we’re continuing our series of Karuizawas for Taiwan with two specimens from the 1977 vintage.

Karuizawa 1977 / 2011, cask #4747, 66.9%abv for Taiwan (Vintage Label)

This is one of those Karuizawas for which age is nothing but a number. It’s young at heart – vibrant, playful and with a frivolous lightness that I find quite seductive. On the nose, it offers cherry liqueur, after eights, roasted almonds, a roll in the hay (in the literal sense, although you’re free to imagine this any way you like) and tinned white peaches. Then, after a while, you may get apricot jam, grape jelly, liquorice allsorts, pear drops and a really pronounced, very sharp spearmint note. Lovely. There’s also a hint of roast duck with rum soaked apples and when you give it half an hour in the glass, there’s a suggestion of chocolate-coated coffee beans. Time in the glass is crucial here – not necessarily 30 minutes, but certainly 5 minutes or so. If you don’t give it a few minutes to settle, you may get some slight sulphur interference that may put you off, and then you’d miss out on all the loveliness that’s there. Again: give it a few minutes and it’ll clear up. Trust me.

Nothing on the nose really prepares you for the palate: sudachi, lime, pencil shavings, eucalyptus and Damask rose wax. It’s extraordinary. Sudachi is one of the signature notes of old Karuizawas – something I’ve never found in any other whiskies, Japanese or other – and here it’s at its most beautifully defined. It leads the attack, hand in hand with lime notes – refreshingly sour. Then, there’s a long interlude of pencil shavings and new plank, before the Damask rose notes (wax, rose water) enter and melt into air (the finish) rather than fade. You couldn’t orchestrate the progression of flavours and aromas any more beautifully. Water makes the nose and palate a bit more candied – personally, I prefer it without.

Karuizawa 1977 / 2011, cask #3584, 64.1%abv for Taiwan (Geisha Label)

Right from the start, it’s clear that the Geisha 1977 is much heavier, more intense and more concentrated than the Vintage 1977. The nose is really earthy, dominated by old leather, humidor notes, prunes and some great vegetal notes (burdock, potato peel). After a while, you get parmigiano stravecchio, cherries macerated in brandy, balsamico, mincemeat (just to be clear, I’m talking about the sort of stuff that goes into mince pies) and blueberry jam. Then, totally out of the blue (no pun intended), an incredibly fresh rosemary note comes piercing through. Underneath all of this, you’ll notice that with time, wood smoke becomes more prominent. It’s an incredibly complex affair: the more time you spend with it, the more it reveals but there’s never a moment where you get “everything”. Instead, you find yourself in the folds of the liquid, as it were, becoming part of a seemingly random process of unfolding and folding-back.

The palate is more compact, very integrated and therefore more difficult to analyze: old chapel notes, beech nuts, sultana raisins, a hint of kale juice, rhubarb jam... Water brings out more sweet fruit notes (overripe pears, peaches) – both on the nose and the palate – but makes it much more one-dimensional. The finish is medium-long – shorter than you’d expect – and reveals a nice chicory note.

There were only 169 bottles of the Geisha 1977. Unfortunately, we don’t know how many bottles cask #4747 (the Vintage 1977) yielded. Both were released two years ago, so – needless to say – the only chance of obtaining one of these now is on the secondary market. That being said, I don’t think I’ve ever seen a bottle of the #4747 listed on any auction site. I imagine anyone who knows what’s in the bottle would have a hard time parting with this.

Read more about Karuizawa Distillery here.

Nikka to launch Coffey Grain in Japan

noreply@blogger.com (Nonjatta) — Fri, 03 May 2013 09:20:00 +0000

Post by Stefan Van Eycken, Tokyo

On June 11th, Nikka is officially launching its regular – i.e. not a single cask (of which there have been many) – no-age-statement Coffey Grain in Japan. It was first launched in September 2012 at Whisky Live Paris, and has since been available as part of the regular Nikka range in Europe. Now, it will also be part of the standard range in the home market. For some reason, the only difference between the European and the Japanese version is the size (500ml and 700ml, respectively).

Masataka Taketsuru imported a Coffey still from Scotland in 1963. He wanted a grain spirit that was – obviously – high in alcohol content but he also wanted to retain the character of the grain, its flavours and aromas. He wasn’t very keen on the newer – more widely used – types of continuous stills, precisely because he felt they stripped the spirit of too much flavour, so he went back to the Coffey still, which is notoriously difficult to operate but produces a more characterful spirit. Nikka originally produced its grain whisky at their Nishinomiya plant, but moved their grain whisky production – and the Coffey stills – to Miyagikyo distillery in 1999. Nikka’s grain whisky is distilled in the traditional way, using mainly corn and a small amount of malted barley.

Nikka’s Coffey Grain has received a warm welcome in Europe, especially from creative bartenders who enjoy using it to give classic cocktails a different slant. It’ll be interesting to see how the home front reacts to this new addition to the Nikka range. It’s bottled at 45% abv and will be priced at a little under (or over, depending on your retailer) 5,000 yen for a 700ml bottle.

Japanese Whisky Hot-Spots Worldwide (2): “Ronin”, Hong Kong

noreply@blogger.com (Nonjatta) — Thu, 02 May 2013 14:09:00 +0000

Post by Stefan Van Eycken, Tokyo

Despite the high tax on spirits (a staggering 100%), there is a flourishing whisky culture in Hong Kong and even though only a handful of Japanese whiskies are officially imported, we are happy to be able to include not one but two “Japanese whisky hot-spots” there in our ongoing series of must-visit drinking establishments outside Japan. Today, we’re thrilled to introduce the first, Ronin, and the man behind the beverage program, Elliot Faber.

Elliot is originally from Canada but has been in Hong Kong for a while now. He’s always had an affinity for drinks, food, travel and all things Japanese. After university, he studied to become a sommelier; then, after wine, he fell in love with sake and started exploring that field. “It was only a matter of time,” he says, “before I started to appreciate the nuance and history of Japanese whisky.” In 2011, he helped set up the restaurant Yardbird – which has since become one of the hippest places in town – and it was then that his studies of Japanese whisky really began: “When we opened Yardbird, we decided to have only Japanese whisky and to use Japanese whisky for everything – so for our Old Fashioned we use Taketsuru 12 to highlight the bourbony sweetness and vanilla; for our Rob Roy we use Nikka From The Barrel, and so on.”

Sourcing the whiskies was a bit tricky, given the market situation there. More often than not, it involved traveling to Japan, a few suitcases, and a friend left or right, but for Elliot this was just part of the learning curve: “As the restaurant continued to grow, so did my passion for and knowledge of Japanese whisky. I got to know the Suntory team, Ichiro Akuto of Chichibu distillery, the people from Eigashima distillery, and many others.” These direct relationships with distilleries made it possible to expand the range of available whiskies in a relatively short time. Two months ago, he opened a second bar, Ronin, again with Japanese whisky as the focal point. At the time of writing, they have close to 100 Japanese whiskies. The two places are sort of complementary: “Yardbird is the loud and fun neighbourhood izakaya and Ronin is somewhat of a maturity. Both the food and the beverages are more refined.”

Elliot was brought in to take care of the beverage program at both establishments by chef/owner Matt Abergel, who trained with Masa Takayama in New York and was executive chef at Zuma in Hong Kong before he created the culinary identity of Yardbird. “It was Matt, my friend of over twenty years, who wanted this whisky selection and it was up to me to put it together. Matt has an incredibly clear vision and palate for the freshest, most artistic sashimi – both in terms of flavour and presentation – and he also applies a whole spectrum of traditional Japanese preparation methods to local seafood. We try to pair his creations with the right Japanese whisky, and it’s always fun: everything from capturing the freshness and texture of Hakushu 12 paired with the omega-rich saba sashimi with persimmon to the dried fruit, malty and slightly salty Mars Komagatake 10yo with the fried quail with the orange zest sancho. Sometimes we prefer to explore contrast, for example by pairing the slightly lean but quite nutty and cereal driven Chichibu Golden Horse 8yo with our unagi chirashi and wild kinome. Our general manager, Raphael Holzer, has a great affinity for spirits, too, so it’s a real team effort.”

Ronin also has a special “bottle keep” system: “We have the equivalent of a ‘library card’ for guests to date-stamp and sign in and out. Once a bottle is purchased, it can only go to that guest.” Elliot’s favourite Japanese whisky? “I don’t have a favourite. Every distillery has merit and a story. At Ronin, we gather the stories and do as much research on the history and flavour profiles of everything right from the distillery down to the individual bottlings, and share it with our guests.” Their motto really says it all: “sharing is caring”.

Ronin
Address: 8 On Wo Lane Central Hong Kong
Hours: 6pm-midnight, Mon-Sat
Yardbird
Address: 33-35 Bridges Street, Sheung Wan Hong Kong
Hours: 6pm-midnight, Mon-Sat

TIBS/Whisky Live 2013 Bottlings Now Available to Bond#1 Members

noreply@blogger.com (Nonjatta) — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 08:06:00 +0000

Post by Stefan Van Eycken, Tokyo

We’ve been bringing you news, reports and interviews from TIBS/Whisky Live Tokyo 2013 all week long, and we’ve still got a few more to come, but today we’re thrilled to be able to point you in the direction of the Japanese whiskies that were specially bottled for the show: Hanyu 1990, Karuizawa 2000, Chichibu 2009 (all single casks) and an amazing cask-strength Yamazaki Mizunara. All of these are now exclusively available to Bond#1 members, and if you’re not a member yet, well, it doesn’t take long to become one. So treat yourself to something special – it is Friday after all – and see what all the excitement was about. But don't wait too long - the secret's out...

Perspectives on the Karuizawa 1960

noreply@blogger.com (Nonjatta) — Thu, 25 Apr 2013 14:16:00 +0000

Post by Stefan Van Eycken, Tokyo

As mentioned in our reports from the Tokyo International BarShow / Whisky Live 2013, the absolute highlight of the weekend was the unveiling of the oldest single cask Japanese whisky ever bottled: Karuizawa cask #5627 (250l ex-sherry hogshead) from 1960. There are just 41 bottles of this and they will be available from the Karuizawa partners in Japan, France, the UK, Taiwan and a few in Scandinavia as well at 2,000,000 yen / 12,500GBP.

We spoke with Marcin Miller (on the right in the picture above) of No 1 Drinks, and Matt Chapman (left) of Contagious, the company who designed the packaging.

Marcin: “I first started working with Karuizawa in 2006. We began by bottling single casks and selling them around the world. After a while, it became apparent there was an opportunity to buy the entire inventory and in August 2011, we finally signed the contract enabling us to have all remaining casks. It was a long process and it was quite a painful process.”

“In February of last year, I took a party of people – including Dave Broom and some friends from Taiwan, France and the UK – to the distillery. On the one hand, it was a very happy occasion because we were in Japan, with friends, at a whisky distillery. But it was actually quite sad, because a distillery has to be a working place, a living place. There had been no whisky made at Karuizawa since 2000 and when our group left the distillery, the two last remaining employees locked the gates behind us. The result is that every time one of us opens a bottle of Karuizawa, we are effectively drinking Japanese liquid history.”

“My love of Karuizawa is based on the character of the whisky and the decision to buy the entire inventory wasn’t just a purely commercial decision. It was driven by our passion for the whisky. Within the inventory, the oldest cask we had was from 1960. The angels of Karuizawa were relatively thirsty, so we only have 41 bottles.”

Marcin asked the people at Scottish design agency Contagious to create something to ‘frame’ the whisky in the right way.

Matt: “Marcin didn’t want anything flashy. We did a lot of research into very, very expensive whisky and there are usually a lot of gimmicks involved – lots of materials that are just there for the expense and have nothing to do with the actual whisky. Everything we did, we wanted to make it feel like it was quite authentic. And that was the brief: try and set something up that helped with the story.”

“The exterior of the box is made in a lighter wood, the interior in a darker wood: to mirror the cask. We chose ash for the outer box – because of the detail in the grain – and for the inner box, we used wenge – which is naturally dark and gives the impression of a flamed cask. When we were making the box, we didn’t want to make use of any metal fixings, so we’ve designed it in such a way that it opens like an old closet box. So the first problem is how to get into the box.”

“The front of the box is inlaid with actual pieces of the cask [the cask head, ed.] that we branded with the Karuizawa kanji on one side, and the English on the other. The reason why there are two labels is to reflect the two cultures that have come together to create this whisky. And that’s reflected again on the bottle. We employed a number of craftsmen from both Japan and the UK: the washi paper was made in Japan, and we used an award-winning calligrapher to create every label on the right for every bottle. We used traditional letterpress for the label on the left from a letterpress in Scotland.”

“We also wanted to do something quite different with this for the numbering. As Marcin mentioned, there were only 41 bottles that came out of the cask and instead of numbering them 1 to 41, we wanted something special. We purchased a collection of 41 netsuke and individually named each bottle to link with the netsuke, so they’re all named differently. They’re all unique.”

As you can see in the pictures, the bottle unveiled at the show was “Treasure Ship”, in reference to the netsuke that goes with that particular bottle. There’s also a special book, written by Dave Broom – which is different from what he penned for the 1964 Karuizawa for Poland.

Matt: “To give you a little indication of the history of Karuizawa, we created a book with some of Dave Broom’s lovely words which is a beautiful read about two things, actually: one about the time he visited Karuizawa with Marcin and also the history itself of the distillery. I think that brings the whole story to life. From the front of the book, it’s in English – and from the back, it’s in Japanese.”

As a design agency, Matt and his team work primarily on spirits – having done work for Pernod Ricard and Diageo brands as well as a lot of independents, and not only packaging but also brand communication, brand homes and distillery work (particularly on Islay for Laphroaig, Lagavulin and Bowmore). This was, however, the first time for them to work on a Japanese project.

Matt: “As said, we wanted to have both UK and Japanese craftsmen and, obviously, getting the right people involved from Japan was quite tricky. We’re lucky we’ve got a Japanese designer who works with us, and she’s from Tokyo. She put us in touch with a Japanese lady who now lives in London and who works as a go-between for Japanese craftspeople – that’s what she does. It was quite difficult to find an antique dealer who sold netsuke so we had to get over that as well. Initially, making those connections was tricky, but once we got the right people in place, that element of it was quite easy. I think the most difficult part of it was not overshadowing the whisky. We wanted something that felt special enough that you’d be amazed by it, but that wasn’t too blingy. Getting that balance right took a lot of trial and error.”

What makes the entire presentation so special, in our opinion, is the fact that it brings together the craftsmanship and expertise of so many people in different corners of the world. Just to give you an idea of what was involved: the whisky was, obviously, made in Japan but distilled using malted barley imported from Scotland; it was then matured in an ex-sherry cask; it was bottled on the 1st of January 2013; the actual bottle is a specially commissioned heavy-weight version of the classic ‘vintage Karuizawa’ bottle; the washi paper for the labels on the bottle was handmade in Japan by Norito Hasegawa, a third generation papermaker; the calligraphy on the left-hand side is the work of award-winning calligrapher Soji Nishimoto; the letterpress on the right-hand label was done in Glasgow; the book was printed in Yorkshire, but the binding was done in the South of England; the box was modelled on traditional Japanese puzzle boxes but handmade in England; the netsuke came from a UK antique netsuke collector and the authenticity of the netsuke was checked by an expert who lives in Eastern Europe. That’s the sort of global collaboration it took to put all the elements together.

Marcin had brought a bottle of the second-oldest Karuizawa – a 1963 – to the show to share with those present. This will be released in September/October and about 150 bottles will be available. The people at Contagious are currently working on the packaging of that release.

Matt: “When we presented for the 1960, we had a whole raft of ideas that we didn’t use. And there was one in there which Marcin absolutely loved and which he had in mind for the 1963. It’s still in progress, so we’ll see how it works out.”

Special thanks to David Croll for inviting us to this momentous event.
Thanks also to Marcin Miller and Dave Broom, for the pleasure of their company at and after the show; to Matt Chapman and Jason Dobson, for sharing aspects of the creative process with us; and to our friends from Hong Kong for providing us with some of their photography.

Read more about Karuizawa Distillery here.

Required Reading: Recent Online Resources about Japanese Whisky

noreply@blogger.com (Nonjatta) — Wed, 24 Apr 2013 13:49:00 +0000

Post by Stefan Van Eycken, Tokyo

Today, we’re taking a little break from providing original content to introduce four fairly recent online resources that we’re sure you’ll enjoy as much as we did/do:

“Japan Whisky Reviews” is a blog devoted exclusively to tasting notes of Japanese whiskies and it is, really, the only quality blog exploring this field. It’s the work of Michio Hayashi, who was born in Japan, but moved to Germany when he was two. His first contact with the amber liquid was in the form of Irish whiskey and then Islay whiskies. It wasn’t until he saw “Lost in Translation” that Michio decided to give Japanese whisky a try. Upon seeing the movie, he remembered the bottle of Hibiki had bought on a whim – it just happened to be a good deal – a few years before. He recognized his bottle in the movie, opened it and that’s when his interest in Japanese whisky really took off. Michio has grown particularly fond of Yamazaki and reckons the 1986 Yamazaki Mizunara for LMdW is his absolute favourite.

The Japanese whisky industry is notoriously secretive, so for a rare look behind the scenes, the following three resources are particularly useful:

- Chris Hoban of the “Edinburgh Whisky Blog” did an in-depth interview with Marcin Miller of No 1 Drinks. Parts 1, 2 and 3 are up already; the last instalment is under way.

- Tim Forbes of The Whisky Exchange has written a multi-part (1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, and more to come) account of his trip to Karuizawa and Chichibu early last year, when the Karuizawa partners (TWE, LMdW and Magny (Taiwan)) were over to check the remaining stock. Tim is taking his time, but his posts – part travel log, part reflections on various aspects to do with the reception of Karuizawa abroad – are well worth the wait.

- A few months ago we wrote about a special bottling to celebrate the Welsh writer C.W. Nicol’s 5 decades in Japan. He’s written a fascinating piece about his involvement with Nikka since the early 80s for the Japan Times entitled “All aglow with the ‘water of life’”. Read it online here.

We hope you’ll enjoy these excursions and hope to welcome you back with us tomorrow for our feature about the launch of the Karuizawa 1960 (including exclusive interviews with the people who made it happen).

From TIBS/Whisky Live 2013: Spotlight on the Samaroli “Evolution Cask-Strength” for TIBS.

noreply@blogger.com (Nonjatta) — Mon, 22 Apr 2013 13:38:00 +0000

Post by Stefan Van Eycken, Tokyo

Samaroli is a household name among whisky enthusiasts worldwide. The man behind the company, Silvano Samaroli, started in the 60s when there were only a handful of independent bottlers and none of any significance outside the UK. A true pioneer, Mr Samaroli started in the business as a sales rep in charge of the distribution of the Springbank and Linkwood portfolio, among others, for an Italian spirits company. He visited many distilleries in Scotland at the time, built up close personal relationships with master blenders there, and gained the respect of people in the industry. In 1968, he took the enormous risk to set up his own company. Since then, many of his bottlings have acquired near-mythic status.

For TIBS/Whisky Live Tokyo 2013, Mr Samaroli prepared a very special bottling – one that, no doubt, will get its place in the pantheon of stellar Samaroli whiskies once people start discovering it. We spoke with Francesco Binetti and started off by asking him what the origin of the “Evolution” project was:

“We started this project in 1992 and the reason was that Mr Samaroli loves the old flavours of whiskies from the 50s and 60s so he wanted to create something to maintain those sort of flavours. He started with a vatting of 20 single casks from different distilleries and different ages, combining the old ones – which contribute the most elegant flavours and the widest perception of complexity – with younger ones – to add body and to maintain balance, but also to create a new balance.

These 20 casks were put together in a big wooden drum, married for about 6 months and then refilled into new casks. Half of these were ex-sherry casks; the others were virgin American white oak casks. And then, not every year, but every time when Mr. Samaroli checked the situation and felt that it needed something to rebalance the cuvee, we added something to it. To give you an example, the first re-vatting after 1992 was done in 1996. Everything was put together in the big wooden drum again, new components were added… and every time, the procedure is the same. Most recently, we put in a Linkwood 1997 and – if I remember correctly – a couple of casks of Glen Grant 1985. At the moment, “Evolution” consists of 45 single casks.”

The bottling for TIBS/Whisky Live Tokyo 2013 is the first cask-strength version of “Evolution”.

“Yes, we felt it was the right time to present it undiluted. And this particular bottling for TIBS/Whisky Live Tokyo 2013 is like a single cask – it’s from cask #7 – so it’s like a unique instance of the on-going evolution of our vatting. There are 12 casks at this moment that are part of this “Evolution” project – 4 and a half are ex-sherry, the others virgin oak – and this cask bottled for Tokyo was an ex-sherry, the fifth full one. As said, this is the first time we did a cask-strength version, but we love it so much, that from now on, all the “Evolution” releases will be bottled at cask-strength.”

At this point in time, “Evolution” comprises more than 5 decades. What does the future hold?

“For the next one, our idea is to take each of these 12 casks “as is”, because given the balance achieved, it would be risky – in our opinion – to keep vatting these. It’s not a 100% sure yet – we’re in the process of deciding now – but we’ll probably just use one of these 12 casks, the youngest virgin oak cask, as the “mother cask” for the next vatting. And we’ll be repeating the same process, selecting from our stock some old casks and some new ones and vatting these together with the mother cask from our current “Evolution” project. That’s how we plan to take this new “Evolution” into the future. If we start next year, the first release of that will probably be in 2020 or 2025.”

Francesco also brought some Samaroli rums to the BarShow and for many whisky fans these were the big revelations of the show. In fact, several people – when asked about their favourite whiskies at the show – said without hesitating: “The Samaroli rums!” Mr Samaroli fell in love with rum in the 70s, during his second honeymoon in the Caribbean, and has traveled all over the world in search of rums of exceptional quality, most of which are further matured in Scotland. Rum and whisky are of equal importance – also in volume – to the company, but here in Japan, the rums are still fairly unknown. Now that the secret’s out, we hope these marvels will finally find their way to our shores.

TIBS/Whisky Live Day 2: Highlights

noreply@blogger.com (Nonjatta) — Sun, 21 Apr 2013 13:18:00 +0000

Post by Stefan of Tokyo Whisky Hub

Whisky/drinks enthusiasts here in Japan will have to wait another year to be spoiled like they were over the past weekend, but that’s life. There’s nothing quite like TIBS/Whisky Live Tokyo and it’s sad that it’s over but we’ve been able to take so much in and so much home – not just literally, but also in terms of newly discovered drams and preferences, cocktail styles and techniques, newly gained insights, and probably some newly made friends, too – that we have enough to keep us going until the next edition. Then again, enough is never really enough when things are this good.

One of the highlights of the second day was the inaugural “Nadeshiko Bartending Challenge”, a competition for up-and-coming lady bartenders in which they were judged on both a free and a compulsory cocktail by the head honchos of the NBA and guest bartenders Peter Dorelli and Jim Meehan. Misu Mariyah of Bar Hakuchoukan took the top prize, so next time you’re in Toyama-prefecture, it may be worth seeking out her bar.

The absolute highlight of the weekend was the unveiling of the oldest single cask Japanese whisky ever bottled: the Karuizawa 1960 (cask#5627), distilled on 1 February 1960 and bottled on 1 January 2013. Marcin Miller of No.1 Drinks, Matt Chapman of Contagious, the company who took care of the design, and Dave Broom, who penned the accompanying booklet, paid tribute to this extraordinary whisky and although it was impossible for them to offer a sample of the 1960 to the people who were invited to the event (there are only 41 bottles of it, and opening one would have set them back 2,000,000 yen), we were incredibly privileged to be offered a dram of the second oldest cask, a 1963. We spoke at length with Marcin Miller and Matt Chapman and will bring you the full story later this week.

Speaking of Karuizawa, a revamped Asama (a vatting of the 1999/2000 vintages) bottled at 50.5%abv will be released soon. In case you’re wondering – as many people have asked me – this is not cask-strength, or more accurately ‘vatting strength’, but the abv that the blender considered perfect for the liquid. Of the other Karuizawas at the show, I thought the 1970/2012 (cask#6177) for LMdW was a real star. If you come across a bottle of this, do what you have to do to make it yours!

Nikka had brought two new single casks to the show: a 1988 Yoichi (cask#100212) and a 2001 Miyagikyo (cask#120449).

The Yoichi was drawn from a virgin American white oak cask and is classic old Yoichi: smoky and dirty (in the good sense!), with hints of smoked ham and nuts and with an extraordinarily long finish (overripe melon, ham again – prosciutto this time – and much more). The Miyagikyo – drawn from an ex-sherry cask – was rather unusual. I, personally, prefer my Miyagikyo from less active casks – casks that allow the character of the spirit to shine through – but will be revisiting this and the Yoichi single cask in the days to come! Both will go on sale the day after tomorrow, but if you missed them at the show and you still happen to be in Tokyo (or lucky enough to be living here!), there’s a special event at the Blender’s Bar on Wednesday (April 24th). We’ll be there, as always, and will get back to you with more news then.

The show is over but Nonjatta will be keeping the vibe alive over the next few days with exclusive interviews with some of the distillers who brought special bottlings to the show and, as said, in-depth coverage of the Karuizawa 1960 launch. Watch this space.

Thanks to our friends over at the amazing Edinburgh Whisky Blog for their plug of Nonjatta’s TIBS/Whisky Live coverage.

Thanks also to our Hong Kong friends for help with some of the photography for the forthcoming Karuizawa 1960 post and for the pleasure of their company all weekend long.

From TIBS/Whisky Live 2013: Stanislav Vadrna on the “Masataka Swizzle”

noreply@blogger.com (Nonjatta) — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 13:44:00 +0000

Post by Stefan of Tokyo Whisky Hub

If you only have one cocktail at the TIBS, let it be this one: the “Masataka Swizzle”. We’re incredibly lucky to have the great Stanislav Vadrna, of the Analog Bartending Institute, at the show this year so don’t leave without visiting his section of the Nikka area. We asked him to tell us a little bit about what went into the creation of this amazing cocktail:

“In 2008 or 2009, for Paris Whisky Live, we did a promotional event for Nikka on the river Seine and I was presenting some drinks there. I came up with this idea: “let’s make a swizzle”, because I was very much into tropical drinks and I wanted to come up with some drinks which, based on whiskies from the Nikka range, would have a kind of tropical feel. There’s a tropical part of Japan – Okinawa – so why not? But there’s also a whole range of climates, up to the cold north of Hokkaido, so … crushed ice and a tropical feel, combined.

But the main idea behind this drink was to create something to honour the father of Nikka whisky. That’s why I named the drink “Masataka Swizzle” because for me, Masataka Taketsuru is the very first Japanese person who really, somehow, built a bridge between the West and the East. And for me, he is a huge inspiration in my professional life as well because when I thought of his way – of going to a very foreign country and learning the culture, the art and bringing it back to your culture and mixing it together – it reminds me a little bit of my own way. I first came to Japan, in 2006, and I was lucky to be trained by Ueda-san of the Tender Bar and then I went back to Slovakia and starting spreading the things I had picked up here all around… and now, it is as it is. So, Taketsuru-san is a real inspiration for me, because he respected the foreign country, its culture and art, and knew he could learn a lot from that.

But for him, it wasn’t just enough to get to know the taste. He wanted to get to the essence. And this is very much my personal philosophy as well. I’m not satisfied with the taste of the food, but I have to get to the essence. And, to get back to the Masataka Swizzle, that year I was very much into the history of ‘swizzling’ so my mindset back then was very focused on the swizzle category, which is a mixture of strong spirit – usually it’s rum, but in the very beginning, in the 18th century, it used to be jenever, but then people switched to rum – so: some spirit, some citrus, some sugar, some bitters and crushed ice. That’s the basic form for swizzles and for me… it’s very Japanese, because what I learned here in Japan is to focus on the process. The process is as important as the final result. So, I thought: maybe by creating a swizzle with Japanese whisky, I could turn these guys’ attention to swizzling. Because this technique has been forgotten. In the West, now, it’s increasing in popularity, but in Japan, it’s still an almost unknown thing. And I believe that, as soon as the “Masataka Swizzle” starts to spread across Tokyo and Japan, the Japanese people are going to start swizzling – and then, what will happen is: they will be the best in the world. So, they’re going to refine the style of swizzling and again, maybe in one or two years, we’re going to come back and see them doing that ritual. Because in bartending here, everything is a kind of ritual: shaking, stirring, jiggering, serving… everything. I’ve been influenced by this way very much, so now, I would like to bring something back. A kind of exchange. I do not need to push this, you know. It’s just here. Now, I have two days – somehow – to swizzle as best as I can and to share my passion with the customers, the bartenders and then we will see. But I truly believe it: this is a real ritual. It is a real connection, through this piece of wood [i.e. the swizzle, the wooden sticks on the left in the picture, ed.], and I really believe you can channel somehow your state of mind, your positive attitude into the drink, through this piece of wood.”

So what goes into a “Masataka Swizzle”?

“It calls for 50mls of Nikka Coffey Grain, 15mls of Amaretto, 15mls of fresh lemon juice, 2 dashes of orange bitters, 2 dashes of Angostura bitters and you can adjust the recipe to suit your taste. I started with 2,5mls of simple syrup. If you like it sweeter, you can go up. If you don’t – if the amaretto is sweet enough for you – you can skip the sugar. But I think it needs a little sugar. Then add crushed ice, swizzle it and swizzle it until the glass gets frosty and the surface gets foamy. Then you know that it’s nicely blended, that you’ve got the proper water dilution and the proper aeration because when you swizzle it, you don’t just want to properly blend it and get the right amount of water in it, but it must be nicely chilled and nicely aerated, because that gives you that smooth texture on your tongue. And then garnish it with a bit of fresh mint and a dash of bitters.”

If you’re at the show tomorrow, let yourself be seduced by the “Masataka Swizzle”. If not, follow the master, and swizzle something yourself. You never know...

TIBS/Whisky Live 2013 Day 1: Highlights

noreply@blogger.com (Nonjatta) — Sat, 20 Apr 2013 12:50:00 +0000

Post by Stefan of Tokyo Whisky Hub

The first day of TIBS/Whisky Live 2013 has just drawn to a close and one thing’s for sure: it’s even better than the previous editions. The new venue is perfect – much more spacious than the Midtown or Big Sight venues – and the list of participants reads like a Who’s Who of whisky anno 2013. Nonjatta will be there tomorrow, too, so keep in mind, what follows are just the highlights of what we experienced today. There’s much more left to explore tomorrow.

Our first port of call was the indefatigable Akuto-san’s booth. He had brought 3 “concept whiskies” to the show – whiskies that will not necessarily be bottled, but that act like antennae to gauge consumer response:

- “Almost Five” (cask#2472), 2008/2013 (first cask: 1st fill barrel; second cask: 2nd fill puncheon);
- “Refill Barrel” (cask#2186), 2009/2013 (first cask: 1st fill barrel; second cask: 3rd fill barrel);
- “Refill Hogshead” (cask#705), 2010/2013

For me personally, as well as for most of the people I spoke to, the “Refill Barrel” was the clear favourite, with its beautiful notes of glazed chestnuts, milk chocolate and raisin butter. Quite extraordinary for a whisky that’s just a few years old, even by Chichibu standards. Here’s hoping enough people will drop a hint to Akuto-san for him to make this available as a single cask.

We were very happy to see our good friends of Mars distillery (Hombo Shuzo) again. The last time we were at the distillery, a few weeks ago, preparations were under way for their next releases – both vattings of 4 casks – and today we had the pleasure of trying them both. The Mars Komagatake 22yo is a vatting of two American White Oak casks (#1042 and #1039), an ex-sherry cask (#384) and a refill (ex-Scotch) cask (#481), bottled at 43% abv (750ml) and with an outturn of 1,359 bottles. It’s a really lush amalgam of crème brulée, lemon tart, calvados, Danish pastries, candied lemon peel, shortbread and butterscotch. There’s also 24yo in the works. This is a vatting of 4 ex-bourbon casks, which combined will yield a mere 120 bottles. The president, Mr Hombo, was kind enough to offer us a sneak pre-taste of this and it really is phenomenal: on the nose, ripe pears and pencil shavings, also fresh ginger, peach jelly and apricot sorbet; on the palate, ginger ale, white pepper, butter, a hint of lemongrass and much, much more… (too much to be able to take in at a busy event!). The finish is extremely long with maraschino cherries and peach liqueur leading the proceedings. Both of these are scheduled for June. The people at Mars are still thinking about how to offer the 24yo, seeing as it’s extremely limited. It’ll be a mad scramble for crumbs when this is released...

The Shinanoya booth was crowded, as always. Make sure you stop by to try the Hanyu 26yo “salon de Shimaji” for pen & Shinanoya. It’s sold out, so unless you managed to get hold of a bottle or two, this is your last chance to try this Hanyu, finished for a year and a half in an ex-Madeira cask: if you love brown sugar on toast, dates, fig logs, raisin bread and the like – and we do! – this is a dram for you. We will spotlight this release in a forthcoming post and give it the attention it deserves.

Other highlights of the show include:

- Tomatin 30 (Japan-only release, to commemorate the 300th anniversary of Kokubu)
- Talisker 35 (1977/2012)
- Glenglassaugh 45 (1967/2012) The Massandra Connection – Red Port Style Finish

Best visitor attraction is, undoubtedly, the Wild Turkey American Honey booth. Check it out at your own risk.

The mini-seminar format seems to be a big hit – we particularly enjoyed the Arran seminar – and the guest bartenders drew huge crowds, too. We’ll bring you more news from the show tomorrow and in the days to follow, so stay tuned.

TIBS / Whisky Live 2013: Day 0 – Bond#1 Private Tasting with Dave Broom

noreply@blogger.com (Nonjatta) — Fri, 19 Apr 2013 14:58:00 +0000

Post by Stefan of Tokyo Whisky Hub

For those lucky enough – let me rephrase that: smart enough! – to be Bond#1 members, the 2013 TIBS/Whisky Live weekend is a three-day extravaganza. The official avant-premiere (for Bond#1 members only) was held tonight at the Park Hotel in Shiodome. Our host, Dave Broom, had just flown in and was in fine form, as always. All of the Whisky Live special bottlings – Japanese as well as Scotch – and some high-end classics were available for tasting. We didn’t try everything – as Dave pointed out, that would have meant a new whisky every 5 minutes and a half – but we got round to trying all of the (Japanese) commemorative bottlings and about half of the Whisky Live original Scotch bottlings.

The Japanese quartet is phenomenal, as was to be expected. Of the four, the Yamazaki Mizunara – with its beautiful summer fruit (cherries, etc.) top notes – and the Chichibu made a strong first impression. There’s a little over 500 bottles of the Yamazaki – which is a vatting of several vintages (centered on the 1984 vintage, with an average age of 18) – and even though it’s a bit pricey, I don’t expect it to be around very long, once word gets around. On the Scottish front, the BenRiach 1985 Hogshead is well worth seeking out – just classic BenRiach – and the Peated Arran 2005 is a real delight – the peat is quite subdued but there’s a vegetal dimension to it that really works well.

The absolute star of the evening, and not just for me personally from the looks of what little was left in the bottle at the end of the party, was the Samaroli Evolution Cask-Strength for Whisky Live. It’s not just a tour-de-force in terms of composition (the label details all of the component whiskies – it’s like a liquid history of the 2nd half of the 20th century) but it’s one of those rare whiskies that is so subtle in its intensity and so intense in its subtlety. An extraordinary piece of work.

New Tasting Rules at Liquors Hasegawa

noreply@blogger.com (Nonjatta) — Thu, 18 Apr 2013 11:14:00 +0000

Post by Stefan of Tokyo Whisky Hub

Liquors Hasegawa, near Tokyo station, is a liquor enthusiast’s paradise for many reasons – it’s conveniently located, the selection is fantastic, the staff very knowledgeable and you can try-before-you-buy at nominal prices. Unfortunately, Liquors Hasegawa has had to revise its tasting policy. It was not unusual for people – I hesitate to write “customers” – to drop by, sample some new whiskies, bourbons, armagnacs, calvados and what-not for a few hundred yen and then … leave. It wasn’t really ideal from the point of view of the staff – it’s not set up as a bar! – and the point of view of actual costumers – people who were actually there to purchase a bottle or two. The new rules are here (in Japanese) and my good friend Eric over at the Malty Moments blog took the trouble to translate them for us. Basically, tasting is now only possible when it is in the context of helping you decide what to purchase, with a limit of 2 samples at a time (and 5 a day, for which you’d have come back a few times on the same day, I guess). The new rules will come into effect on April 20th, the first day of Whisky Live.

La Bento Box by Nikka

noreply@blogger.com (Nonjatta) — Tue, 16 Apr 2013 11:48:00 +0000

Post by Stefan of Tokyo Whisky Hub

Whisky fans based in Paris wishing to enjoy the hanami season in style now have the chance to do so with a bento that would put most lunch boxes here in Japan to shame. It’s a collaboration between the amazing chef Sakura Franck – of Japanese gourmet hub (it’s more than a restaurant!) “Sous les cerisiers” – and Nikka Whisky and it includes the following: aubergine fritters, stuffed with chicken and nuts, prepared with Nikka From the Barrel; macha soba with salmon and raisins macerated in Taketsuru 12; foie gras maki with Miyagikyo 10; and for dessert, mochi with milk-chocolate and apple cooked in Nikka Coffey Grain. It’s a seasonal thing, obviously, (available until the end of the month) so for those lucky enough to be in Paris, this is one opportunity not to be missed. Nonjatta will be spending the summer in France – exploring its calvados and whisky (yes, don’t laugh!) culture, among other things – and “Sous les cerisiers” is one of the places we’ll be checking out on our travels. And even though this “La Bento Box by Nikka” won’t be available anymore by then, we’re sure there’ll be new marvels to try.

Address: 12 Rue Stanislas, 75006 Paris
Tel.: 01 42 77 46 24

Kakubin 43% Retro Label x Bar Rockfish

noreply@blogger.com (Nonjatta) — Mon, 15 Apr 2013 13:42:00 +0000

Post by Stefan of Tokyo Whisky Hub

Bar Rockfish in the Ginza district of Tokyo probably doesn’t need an introduction, but just in case you haven’t heard of it… well, it’s the whisky highball mecca. They serve it in the Kansai-style – as perfected at Samboa in Osaka – which is: no ice, glass chilled (in the freezer!), whisky chilled, soda chilled and a squeeze of lemon peel. More than 90% of the orders at Rockfish are highballs of this type and “master” Kazunari Maguchi (see him at work here) is very particular about his highballs. He swears by the old, now rare 43%abv yellow-label Kakubin (the present, regular version is the 40%abv yellow-label one, which is ubiquitous here in Japan). When Suntory discontinued the 43% yellow-label type, Maguchi started scouring mom-and-pop stores all over the country to make sure he had the stocks to continue making his Rockfish highball. Now, Suntory is paying tribute to Rockfish with this special edition, featuring a retro label, bottled at 43%abv and with the old flavour profile. Word is it’s only available at Aeon group malls/supermarkets. It went on sale today, so I quickly drove to the nearest Aeon after work and was lucky enough to be able to intercept a case before the staff in the liquor section were going to put the bottles on the racks. It’s priced at 1,598 yen but it’s not clear what the outturn is, how long it will be available, and whether it is, in fact, available at Aeons nationwide. Also, you won’t find these Aeons in the big cities - they’re usually located on the outskirts and in the countryside - so this may be the perfect excuse to get in touch with your family, in-laws, ex-boy/girlfriends, old classmates, or whoever else is not enjoying the big-city life here in Japan.