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500ml bottling at 40% - 980 yen. |
The fairly recent renovations of the Yamaya (WLS) liquor store in Rokkomichi continue to relish. The abundance of space continues to bring forth a generous selection of new domestic whiskies that were generally unseen in the past. On my most recent visit I came across a few interesting additions, but perhaps the one that caught my eye the most would have to be the bright green labeled bottle with the words “Fukushima Prefecture” scrolled across the bottom (bottlings have previously come in brown glass with blue labels).
Cherry EX states itself to be a high quality blend, which selects distillate from quality-reserved pot stills at the Yamazakura distillery. Through research, feedback, and labeling there is a big indication that this blend, all though following domestic regulations, obtains a percentage of non-grain spirit. Cherry whisky is bottled by Sasanokawa Shuzo, the people involved with Ichiro’s Ginkgo blend, but the manufacture is better known and acknowledge for its prized sake. The company began its whisky production in 1946 and began bottling soon after at the Fukushima premises; careful naming the blend from the inspiring wild cherry trees that lay abundant in the prefecture.
Without being judgmental, a reasonable question is would you consume it, regardless of the destruction in this area and its aftermath hype? Cherry EX whisky comes in three expressions at various strengths and bottle sizes.
I tried it and liked it very much. Liked it enough that I polished off two bottles already. I normally drink my whisky on the rocks with a splash of water. Cherry EX is an excption to that, it's much better without the water; in fact even a small amount of water seems to ruin it for me. A local Mom & Pop liquor store near my house is stocking it. They have such a small variety of whisky to chose from; not sure why the have Cherry EX. I'll try to be a steady customer so that they continue to carry it.
ReplyDeleteThanks Mike for your feedback. As mentioned there are three expressions of Cherry whisky, which I'm yet to sample. Ah......the Mom & Pop stores, I live them, I frequent them often for both the experience and the random good find.
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