60°
Distillery : Tsunuki - Japan
1st Fill Bourbon Barrel
Original Bottling
Limited Edition
Single Cask
Bottled in 2021
Unchillfiltered, Uncoloured, Cask Strength
Totally Unpeated
The Mars brand is operated by the Hombo Shuzo group. It's still the same brand, but the whisky can come from two different distilleries: Tsunuki or Shinshu. Here, we're dealing with a special project, the Project Single Cask. Each cask is distilled at Tsunuki and undergoes the same maturation process. But the ageing takes place at three different sites: Tsunuki, Shinshu and Yakushima. The idea is to see how the ageing site affects the quality of the whisky. As I understand it, this whisky was distilled and aged at Tsunuki for around 4 years. The cask was specially selected by La Maison du Whisky for its 65th anniversary, and yielded 200 bottles.
Let's Taste It :
The nose is quite fruity, with fresh fruits, green apples, ripe apricots, juicy pears. Wood and fig pulp. Slightly boggy, not quite balanced but complex and full. Smoky haze. On the palate, carrot and fruit purée, fresh cream, some herbaceous hints, dandelion, reeds. The spices are relatively strong, cloves, cumin, pepper. The finish is violent, a little aggressive I must say, charcoal and earth, dark chocolate, a few drops of honey and apricot juice. Limestone.
In Short,
It's impressive for its maturity - you could easily give it 8 years rather than 3 or 4 - but also for its complexity. It's a very good product, but I didn't find it quite balanced. The price is far too high in my opinion, which is probably why it's still available two years later, despite the small number of bottles produced.
Score : 88
To Be Listened While Sipping :
The Hu Band - The Wolf Totem
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