Why? JM (James Moriarty) has not only made Sherlock Holmes state that it's by far the biggest and dirtiest trick yet pulled off by JM, to reveal the secret of good whisky to the world. JM has now also made the rest of the worlds whisky drinkers go completely bonkers this year, paying prices up £1000+ for a bottle of no-age-statement whisky at under cask strength and, at the same time, displaying behaviour which can only be The Whisky Worlds equivalent to Black Friday. Luckily, most purchases were done online, so only a few 1's and 0's were hurt in the stampede for this 18.000 bottles release...
Oh, well... enough nonsense about Arch Villains and Super Detectives!
I did a little detecting myself last night and tried another Yamazaki. Not the much fabled bottling mentioned above, but instead a single cask Yamazaki bottled by The Scotch Malt Whisky Society.
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| Yamazaki Distillery, outside Osaka, Japan - picture from Wikipedia |
Yamazaki 2003 11yo 119.14 (30.04.2003) 'Raspberry Imperial Stout' 53,9%, 1st fill Bota Corta sherry butt, 538 bottles, The Scotch Malt Whisky Society
Colour is Mahogany
Nose:
Ultra clean and drying sherry nose immediately showing dark fruits - plums, figs and raisins. Also in there are burnt caramel, pibe tobacco (you remember the Sweet Dublin blend?) old dark rum, bung cloth and earthy notes gets to have a say too... I also found lots of dark chocolate, candied and burnt apple and loads of sweet licorice in there.
Taste:
Quite drying, chocolate again - filled ones, cherries, marzipan plums, the drying taste and effect of cocoa powder and spices - nutmeg and allspice. Also in there are baked/overripe brown banana, blackcurrant and a black olive saltiness.
This is just lovely if you adore the heavily sherried whisky style! Some might argue this is sherry broken, I'd dare say some distillery fruitiness still peaks through here...
90/100!
Nose:Ultra clean and drying sherry nose immediately showing dark fruits - plums, figs and raisins. Also in there are burnt caramel, pibe tobacco (you remember the Sweet Dublin blend?) old dark rum, bung cloth and earthy notes gets to have a say too... I also found lots of dark chocolate, candied and burnt apple and loads of sweet licorice in there.
Taste:
Quite drying, chocolate again - filled ones, cherries, marzipan plums, the drying taste and effect of cocoa powder and spices - nutmeg and allspice. Also in there are baked/overripe brown banana, blackcurrant and a black olive saltiness.
This is just lovely if you adore the heavily sherried whisky style! Some might argue this is sherry broken, I'd dare say some distillery fruitiness still peaks through here...
90/100!
