Review - Bowmore Mizunara Cask Finish

This new release from the Islay distillery of Bowmore offers something genuinely unique - a Scotch single malt that has been matured in Japanese mizunara oak.  This is the first whisky of its kind and stems from the fact that Bowmore is owned by Beam Suntory, the biggest whisky producer in Japan.  Mizunara oak is rare and only grows in northern Japan and small areas of China and Russia.  Trees are very slow growing and take 200 years to reach full size.  Because of this Beam Suntory only make around 100 such casks per year and runs a sustainability programme to replant saplings for future generations.

New release - Hakushu Distiller's Reserve

The Distiller's Reserve is a new single malt from the Japanese distillery of Hakushu.  The whisky has been constructed to showcase the qualities and characteristics of Hakushu's young lightly peated single malts.  These have been accentuated by blending with older heavily peated malt and aged (all of which are 18+ years old) American oak matured whisky.  All the casks used have been hand selected by Shinji Fukuyo, who is only the fourth Chief Blender in owner Suntory's 90 year history.

Have just tried - Miyagikyo 12 years old

The Miyagikyo distillery (pronounced mee-yag-ee-kyo) is a Japanese whisky distillery that was found in 1969 and is owned by the Nikka Whisky Distilling Company.  They own two distilleries in Japan, with the other being Yoichi.  They also own the Ben Nevis distillery near Fort William in Scotland.  Miyagikyo is located in the Miyagi Prefecture to the west of the city of Sendai.  The distillery was firstly named as Sendai, then changed to Sakunami before becoming known as Miyagikyo in 2001.

Distillery Visit - Yamazaki

When it was suggested ages ago that my girlfriend Harriet and I might go on holiday to Japan for a couple of weeks it didn’t take me long (instantaneously in fact) to start thinking about what distilleries we could visit while we were over there. Luckily Harry is quite understanding in these matters so when we flew off to Japan in September, I’d managed to arrange for us to pay a visit to Suntory’s Yamazaki distillery and have a little look around.

Have just tried - Royal Household

A couple of months ago Matt C and I were invited to a tasting hosted by Diageo to showcase some of the very successful blended whiskies they have for sale in other markets aside from the UK. One of the whiskies we both took a shining to was Royal Household, part of the Buchanan’s stable of blends, a very successful range that sells in the millions in territories such as South America and Asia.

Great places to drink whisky - Japan

Japan is arguably the home of the whisky bar. There are huge amounts of them all over the place, particularly in Tokyo. Consequently, when my girlfriend and I decided go on holiday to Japan, I immediately began looking into what whisky bars I could drag her along to and spend stupid amounts of money in.