Category Archives: News

2 New Chichibu Soon. Yippee!!

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As reported by Clint over at Whiskies R Us, there will be 2 new official Chichibu bottling’s released soon. One from Port Pipes, one from Chibidaru(small) casks. You can read Clint’s post here.
Cask Strength, non chill filtered, no artificial coloring. What’s not to Love? I really enjoyed the previous Port Pipe release from Chichibu and have a bottle of Hanyu from a Chibidaru cask which is very tasty, so I have high hopes for these newbies.

UPDATE 31/3/2013: These are now available here for Worldwide Shipping. You can knock off about Y500 from the listed price as local taxes are deducted for International Customers. I’ve bought many bottles from this supplier. Fast, safe and reliable in my experience.

Yamazaki Heavily Peated 2013 No Age Statement 48%

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Although this news has been released by Suntory for a short time already, some readers may not have picked up on it. Good news, if you live in Japan and have some retail contacts you may be able to pick up a bottle or two. Bad news, if you live outside of Japan and don’t have any retail contacts there you are likely to miss out until they reach auctions and you have to pay at least double the price as this apparently is a Japan only release. Heavily Peated NAS Hakushu have been available for retail sale in the UK/Europe.
Interesting that this is another No Age Statement bottling from Suntory which indicates one of 2 things. That previous news of low stock numbers at Yamazaki and/or Hakushu are true(due to the recent popularity of Japanese whisky), hence having to blend younger and older stock, or, it’s a way to keep the price down as single cask offerings like the Yamazaki Heavily Peated 1993 can cost a ‘motsa’ these days. Personally, I’m going with the former. Reading Suntory’s own website they seem to be looking at ramping up production, more to follow on that.
So bottom line, there will be 3500 bottles of this and official release day is 23 April. Contact your Japanese whisky supplier if you have one.
Final word, Yamazaki Heavily Peated whisky tends to be just that, with Hakushu Heavily Peated whisky tending to be more mid range than heavy so this one should be interesting.

World Gone Mad – 12 Year Old Hanyu Sells for 605 Euros

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ace-of-clubsSo, as we know 4 of the final bottling’s in Ichiro’s Card Series Hanyu went on sale less than 2 months ago. Now as far as I know, none have made it to Europe or the UK for general retail sale yet, so current access is by auction. This morning a bottle of Ichiro`s Malt 2000 12YO Ace of Clubs sold for 605 Euros on whiskyauction.com. That’s right, 605 Euro’s! The other 3 bottling’s that were released at the same time were up for grabs as well, 2 of them fetching 280 Euro’s the other 264. The 2 that fetched 280 were respectively 21 and 22 years old and the one that reached 264 a 12 year old like the Ace of Clubs.
Why so much for the Ace of Clubs? There was a total outrun of 503 bottles so a fair amount for a single cask. It was finished in a Japanese Mizunara Oak Cask, so was that the reason? The whisky may have only spent months in this cask, so the full effect of Mizunara Oak on the whisky may hardly be felt. How do I know this? I have an open bottle of the 4 of Spades that was also finished in Japanese Oak and compared to something like the Yamazaki annual release fully matured in Misunara
there is quite a big difference in profile. Hanyu’s tend to have an aromatic/wood spice/incense profile anyway, so it’s even harder to tell where the Hanyu house style ends and the Mizunara starts. Also, I have not read a single review for the Ace of Clubs, so buyers are just grabbing these on spec.
The kicker, when they went on sale in Japan the Ace of Clubs sold for under $100 Australian! Maybe I’m the mad one, I didn’t buy a bottle!

New Japanese Whisky Distillery

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Chris over at The Whisky Wall recently posted a scoop(at least in English), on a new Japanese Whisky Producer. Ok, so strictly speaking the distiller is not new, but their production of whisky is. The guys at The Whisky Wall are true Japanese whisky fans and I encourage readers of my blog to check out their site from time to time in regards to whisky from The Land of the Rising Sun. You can read their post here.

WhiskyLive Tokyo 2013

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The dates for WhiskyLive Tokyo 2013 were released a little while back but I thought it would be worth posting on The Japanese Whisky Review. One of the main reasons is, if like me you do not reside in Japan, then it takes a bit more time to organize your trip. This year the event will be held at Belle Salle Shibuya Garden, the third different venue in 3 years. Nice for me as I will be staying in my usual haunt, Shinjuku, which is close by. Once more the event will be held in conjunction with the Tokyo International Bar Show. Seems not all details have been released yet so keep checking the links for updates.

Final Ichiro’s Malt Card Bottlings

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Tomorrow marks the beginning of the end of Ichiro Akuto’s now famous card series bottling’s of Hanyu. The last four ‘cards’ to make up the deck of 52 will go on sale at selected retailers in Japan on January the 2nd. Many readers will be aware that these are from casks that Akuto-san was able to salvage after his families company Toa Shuzo went bankrupt and stopped distilling whisky in the year 2000. This has duel significance. Over the last few years when the profile of Japanese whisky was on the rise, Akuto-san was able to capitalize on this and sell whisky that previously did not have a large enough market either domestically or internationally. We have now had the opportunity to savor many of these beauties that may well have been lost forever otherwise. This in turn helped Akuto-san start his own company Venture Whisky and the associated Chichibu Distillery which has already shown great promise.
This is not to say there won’t be anymore Ichiro’s bottling’s of Hanyu as there is still more stock. But it is the Card series that will be fondly remembered as the beginning of a Japanese whisky legend.

The details of the last 4 Cards are as follows.
Ichiro’s Malt 5 of Diamonds 2000-2012 1st Cask Hogshead 2nd Cask Oloroso Sherry Butt 57.7% abv approx. price Y8000
Ichiro’s Malt Ace of Clubs 2000-2012 1st Cask Hogshead 2nd Cask Mizunara(Japanese Oak)  Cask 59.4% abv approx. price Y8600
Ichiro’s Malt 7 of Spades 1990-2012 1st Cask Hogshead 2nd Cask Cognac 53.8% abv approx. price Y13500
Ichiro’s Malt 6 of Hearts 1991-2012 1st Cask Hogshead 2nd Cask American Oak Puncheon 57.9% abv approx. price Y11500

New Single Casks From Nikka

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yoichi-single-cask-1994-18yo-400749-warehouse-25-62miyagikyo-single-cask-2002-2012-11yo-102949-warehouse-no-6-62Available now from the Asahishop  one x new Single Cask Yoichi and one x new Single Cask Miyagikyo. Ok, so you need to know someone in Japan to order them if you live outside that country, but, for those who do they represent rare opportunities as these one’s tend to be Japan only releases, with the UK/Europe receiving allocations of different casks. Prices are Y15750 for the Yoichi and Y8400 for the Miyagikyo.
Distillery notes describe some of the following attributes to these:
Miyagikyo Single Cask 2002-2012 11YO #102949 Warehouse No.6 62%: Floral, fruity, malty, elegant, silky.
Yoichi Single Cask 1994-2012 18YO #400749 Warehouse 25 62%: Savoury, incence, vanilla, sweet oak, light peat, salt, bittersweet.

I’ve ordered 2 bottles of the Yoichi but I may not get tasting notes up for a while as I have quite a backlog of other notes already, so first things first.

Here we go!!

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Welcome to The Japanese Whisky Review by Dramtastic. It’s a brand spanking new blog, so I thought it would be appropriate to kick off with some tasting notes on a couple of the latest bottlings from Japan’s newest distillery – Chichibu. Please enjoy!