Nose: Beautifully rich, classic Yamazaki dark sherry. Leads with a bucket load of raisins. Blackberry conserve, ginger spice, stew rhubarb, balsamic, dark honey. Dark chocolate, oyster sauce, caramelised orange jus, sherry soaked oak. No harshness even at 61%.
Palate: Massive concentration of dried fruits, raisins, currents, papaya. Big salt, fresh ginger heat, black plums, toasted oak, some red wine like tannins. Water brings out leather, nutmeg, cocoa, blood oranges and ups the tannins.
Finish: Long and juicy. With water raisins, nutmeg, cocoa, oyster sauce, balsamic, menthol, almonds, dark chocolate and the drying tannins. Prefer this with only a few drops of water at the most.
Last Word: Color as black as ink in the bottle and as resolved as a good 18YO. Big, bold and beautiful. What a cask selection. Pays to be located only 25 minutes from the distillery me thinks. Not to be confused with cask #CU 70067 found at Isetan/s in Tokyo. 70062 is superior across the board.
Rating: 92/100
Hi Brian,
I am currently in Osaka.
Would you still consider this a bottle to buy?
Have not been to Isetan, so not sure they still have some stock left….
Thanks!
William
I would absolutely recommend this bottle to buy William if they have any left. Just remember to check the cask number, Isetan has had a number of these casks. You really can’t go wrong with Yamazaki sherry cask whisky though.
A small update Brian.
It seems they are all gone….
Perhaps you were lucky enough to score the last bottles?
Thanks for the update William
Were you able to buy a bottle?
Could only visit in January, apparently too late…
If you mean when we were there a couple of weeks ago no. I didn’t even look as I had already ordered other bottles that took me up to my duty free limit.
Your review has been rather helpful in giving me some orientation, but I’m still a bit unsure of my recent finding: its the same as the one reviewed here except it was bottled this year (2013)! 60% abv, cask # CU 70095. I’ve looked and not found any mentions of it online (so far), which has got me worried. Also a bit worrying was that I found it in Don Quixote (an outlet shop in Japan) of all places. Any ideas?
Hi,
They are all different casks bottled for different outlets. Probably nothing online because no one has reviewed it. Remember it is a single cask, so not many bottles around. What they have in common is the letters CU before the numerals.
I paid about Y12000, so if you could get it for that I would buy it(well assuming it’s a from a sherry cask).
I love this Whisky! I am confused about the bottle number though. My # is 374 and I bought in January 2013 from Isetan JR Osaka. They must not stock it in order? If I knew how great it was, definitely would have bought a second bottle since I am close to finishing mines.
Great website btw
Firstly thanks.
I doubt is they would bother stocking them in order. After all, they own the whole cask. I’ll be back in Osaka in December so hope they have at least one bottle left.
I’ll be spending a couple of days in Osaka next month. Would this be pretty easy to find?
Hi Harold,
I bought this at the actual Isetan at JR Osaka Mitsukoshi. This is at Umeda station. I should have bought 2!
Got one of these a few days ago while in Osaka. Only had room for one bottle, and picked this over the Ichiro Malt & Grain which was almost the same price. I have #174. Can’t wait to try it. Takashimaya and Bic Camera in the Namba area didn’t have much of interest. Might have to make room for one more bottle when I get to Tokyo in 2 days.
If only Macy’s or Bloomies here in US were to sell whisky.. I would definitely go there more than once every 10 years..