Hi everyone,
Some rare Japanese whisky today from Mars and Yoichi.
Mars in particular I was keen to try, as the distillery closed for a long time and has only been producing again for the last few years. I had heard legendary things about the old stuff.
In the end, it turned out the other way round. The 3yo single cask I tried a while ago was way better than this one.
Mars 1988 Single Cask 46%
Colour: Gold
Body: Medium
Nose: Very impressive. Complex floral, perfumed and sweet. Car sweets, orange and Turkish delight.
Taste: Very soft, silky, delicate, orange car sweets then more perfumed and floral with a soapy note. In the end it’s a bit like drinking washing up liquid.
Finish: Long length. Soapy and more than a little off. Car sweets, washing up liquid and a little oak.
Bottled 2013. I was excited about this one but very disappointing, particularly seeing the usual prices for these bottles are in the hundreds.
71/100
Yoichi- Nikka 1991 Single Cask 63%
Colour: Light Amber
Body: Full
Nose: Balanced and complex. Very nice amount of sweetness and smokiness, a very delicious Unami note like bacon, maple syrup and pancakes. Toffee popcorn.
Taste: Stunning arrival, dry mid-palate with lots of oak, spices and sweetness, orange, chewy sweets, then ashy smoke and bacon. Pretty delicious stuff.
Finish: Medium length. More Unami bacon and woody maple syrup.
Those Japanese... when they get it right, they get it very right. No water needed here. A little too dry maybe but bloody delicious.
88/100
Distilleries: Mars/Yoichi
Average Scores: 80/80.5
Distillery Rankings: 10th/11th of 64 places
Up/Down: Mars down 3>11 (9 places)
Thanks for reading!
Japanese Reviews #19-#20
Whisky Network Reviews #726-#727
Network Average: 74.9
Best Score: 94
Worst Score: 12
0-49 Terrible
50-59 Bad
60-64 Just About OK
65-69 Ok to Good
70-74 Good
75-79 Very Good
80-84 Excellent
85-89 Superb
90+ Magnificent
Full Disclosure Disclaimer: I currently work as a Brand Ambassador for Penderyn Distillery. The views expressed here are purely my own and do not reflect the views of Penderyn Distillery or The Welsh Whisky Company. I try to maintain as much objectivity as I can but feel free to take my reviews with as big a pinch of salt as you like. Furthermore, my rating scale is NOT based on a Parker type wine scoring scale or a school/college/university % or A-F grade score. You can find more on my scoring here. I apologise for any seemly low or 'bad' scores given with my system and I am sorry I can't say only nice things. Please keep in mind that I am ethically compromised and I am unable to produce 100% unbiased reviews.
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