The 2012 Yamazaki limited cask collection that
compromises of the Sherry, Bourbon, and Puncheon releases are rapidly becoming
scarce. This goes for the tasting bar at the Yamazaki distillery also. On a
brief visit today (September 27), I was informed that the Bourbon cask release is
down to half a bottle, after this, visitors will no longer be able to sample it
as there are no more bottles remaining at the distillery. I presume this will
be gone by the end of the week. However, fans of both the Puncheon and Sherry
release might be slightly happier to learn that these expressions will still be
available at Yamazaki to taste, but again, not for long, as there is roughly one and a half bottles
remaining of each. Last but certainly not least, quite the opposite really, the
tasting bar also has approximately one and a half bottles of the Yamazaki
Mizunara expression and a dram or two left of the Mizunara Genshu. For me the
Mizunara Genshu took the medal today (all though not an official bottling), followed
by the Puncheon that I favoured over the Bourbon cask. Nevertheless all of the
cask collections shined in their own way, compared to the last release in my
opinion. If a quick visit to the distillery to sample this year’s collection is
out of the question I believe Whisky Shop W has a few drams left to consume.
At about 25,000 yen a bottle for the Mizunara, I'm thinking I will never taste it...
ReplyDeleteChris, great dram indeed, but I think you will be more than happy just to have a dram of this at a bar, possibly your local haunt when in Tokyo? 25,000 yen can still be hard to justify.
DeleteWell 3 of the 4 arrived today.
ReplyDeleteBourbon Barrel is quite different to last year in profile IMO. Much more vanilla and oak for starters though the oak is of the creamy variety.
Mizunara as always is quite unique if you haven't tried a whisky from this type of cask.
The Sherry cask is another Yama Sherry knockout. Will do a head to head with last year which was great, first impressions 2012 might even be better. Stunning value if you managed to get one. In the real world where most people can't spend $500 on a sherry cask whisky I couldn't see how anyone could need much more than the 2012 Yama provides. Instant gratification.
Interesting, as I mentioned in the post I thought also that this year's collection is different from last, hence favouring the Puncheon of the Bourbon, not that the Bourbon is necessarily not as good as 2011 but the Puncheon is possibly better this time around. I thought all the 2012 releases generally shined compared to the last run so it's good to get feed back on this. Cheers.
ReplyDelete