This year we have seen a flourish of Japanese whiskies hit the market, in particular a handful of expressions from Venture Whisky. In coming time, as early as this weekend to be precise (Saturday 7th); we will once again have the pleasure of witnessing the hype surrounding yet another bottling from Ichiro-san. Ichiro’s second new blend The Malt & Grain Premium “Black Label”, the sequel to the fairly affordable and recent Malt & Grain “White Label”, will soon hit the shelves of many a retailer and add to the forever growing portfolio of arguably Japan’s most influential figure of recent times. Official sales of the blend, which consists of genshu malt from ten distilleries and top quality grain from three grain distilleries, will commence at the beginning of this month. WSJ (Wine & Spirits Japan), who run the whisky corner at Hankyu, Umeda, will have several bottles of this premium blend, which will retail for yet again, an affordable price of 5,000 yen. If a full bottle purchase is not in your alley, they will also be selling the blend in 100ml decanters (roughly only two bottles, so until stocks last), like they often kindly do. The “Black Label”, which has an ABV of 50% and bottle volume of 700ml, is said to have aromas of vanilla sugar confectionary, rich burnt toffee with top notes reminiscent of ripe fruit, and a long oily finish.
Photo courtesy of WSJ
I dont suppose the released the names of the distilleries the malts came from?
ReplyDeleteany word on how much the 100mls is going to go for at Hankyu?
The 100ml decanters will sell for 1,050 yen. Not bad really, considering a 30/40ml dram at a bar will cost more than that. Might pay to get in there early if you are interested in the smaller alternative.
ReplyDeleteRegarding names of the distilleries, at this stage nothing has been revealed, not that I know of or seen anywhere else, however it"s something we all want to know so I'm looking into it. If anyone knows, feel free to let us know.
Unfortunately my sources either do not know or some suggested knowing but are not willing to and can't let the "cat out of the bag" - just as we witnessed with the White Label. However, as with the Malt & Grain White Label, we can possibly speculate that whisky from Akuto-san's own stocks, potentially including Hanyu and Chichibu malt are blended with other malt and grain from Japanese and Scottish distilleries.
ReplyDelete10 malt distilleries has too include some Scottish malt cuz there ain't another 8 Japanese malt distilleries who would all be willing to sell Akuto-san stock, possibly the same for the grain. Not sure why Nikka or Suntory would sell Akuto-san any grain whisky, maybe he could get some of it from Kirin or one of the smaller players such as WAKATSURU SHUZOU who have produced blends?
ReplyDeleteHi Brian, yes agree, as I mentioned we could possibly speculate that it includes Akuto's own stock ( which of course maybe completely wrong), blended with either or both other Japanese or Scotch distilleries. You raised a good point regarding the grain, are we safe to speculate that the grain, from the stated distilleries, is not domestic?
DeleteWhere did you get the information that it contained malt from 10 distilleries and grain from 3 distilleries? I can tell you it is ABSOLUTELY IMPOSSIBLE that he got malt from any distillery other than Chichibu /Hanyu / Karuizawa here in Japan. The others just do not sell malt. To give you an idea, Nikka even refused to do a special bottling for TIBS - and that's after considerable pressure from very powerful groups. Can you imagine they would sell "malt" in bulk? No way. I know Akuto-san had some malt from Scotland (from back in the days when casks could be shipped overseas without problem). As far as the grain is concerned, he does - of course - hold all remaining grain from Kawasaki (ex-Kirin, just like Karuizawa) - other than that, again it would have to be grain from Scotland. I just don't understand how a blend could be so cheap if it involves so many casks that have been bought from brokers in Scotland and shipped to Japan (which is an expensive affair). Very strange...
ReplyDeleteHi Stefan, again, agree, I made the same point: it wouldn't work (price wise) shipping everything from Scotland, hence speculating that potentially it would contain both Scotch and Japanese malt and grain. I certainly see your point though, I have re-read my original comment, although I did say we could speculate it potentially contains malt from Hanyu and Chichibu, I also wrote " blended with malt and grain from other Japanese and Scottish distilleries". I see my blatant mistake. However, the information regarding "malt from 10 distilleries and grain from 3 distilleries" came directly through a faxed promotional/press release from WSJ. Also for a further reference, Claude Whiskies Japan have stated the same:
Deletehttp://global.rakuten.com/en/store/auc-claude/
It does state that the text is from software translation, but even still I don't think it would make a mistake with the number of distilleries through translation.
Appreciate the informative reply and knowledge, at the end of the day, the main thing is people's views and thoughts, and possibly some further insight, that and of course, it would be great to actually know. Perhaps time will tell. Stefan, look forward to hearing more from you on this. Many thanks, Clint.
Direct link which may be of help:
ReplyDeletehttp://global.rakuten.com/en/store/auc-claude/item/10001542/
Ok, just recieved a full frontal label shot by a gentleman who has just had a dram of it from a freshly opened bottle. Now, just like the White Label stated on the label " Akuto Ichiro travels to find casks to perfect his blend, in addition to his Hanyu and Chichibu single malt - this is a worldwide blend", the Black Label does also. So, we can now tick off Hanyu and Chichibu, but the word "travels", is this both domestically and internationally or just abroad? And if internationally only, does this mean not only Scotland? Not clearly stated, but I think it's a good indication as both Dramtastic and Stefan mentioned to safely suggest there are no other Japanese malts included, simply because it would have stated otherwise in my opinion.
ReplyDeletePossibly other countries as well. Kirin has used grain whisky from North America in its blends from back in the Kirin-Seagram days. Pure speculation but I still wouldn't write off Kirin as a possible source of some of the grain, after all, they had no problem closing Karuizawa so capable of anything. ;)
ReplyDeleteAnother link of interest I came across today, looks like from venture whisky itself, or someone affiliated. Plainly states malt from 10 distilleries and grain from 3 distilleries, but again, the secrecy is not revealed. It appears the info I received originally was the exact extract from this, certainly not wrong it seems.
ReplyDeletewww.iiosake.com/venturewhisky.html