Blind Tasting No. 8 Recap
East Asia
By popular demand, this weekend we tasted through whiskies from East Asia! Two of the whiskies were from Japan and the third was from Taiwan. Both Japanese and Taiwanese whiskies have gained popularity among US consumers recently and if you’d like to learn more about this, head over to the blog to read the post about Japanese Whisky.
The three whiskies we tried during this tasting were:
Nikka Whisky Taketsuru Pure Malt is a vatting of malts from Yoichi and Miyagikyo (both Nikka distilleries) that have been aged in sherry, bourbon and new American oak barrels. The result is a balance of flavors inspired by the father of Japanese whisky, Masataka Taketsuru. Everyone picked out notes of bright fruit, coconut, vanilla, roasted marshmallow, tobacco, clove and leather (more specifically, Coach handbag).
KAIYO Whisky Mizunara Oak is a teaspoon malt from Japan that was aged in mizunara oak. The whisky spent 3 months of its maturation on a sea voyage, where the movement of the ship, pressure and temperature changes and sea air are said to have a great impact on the flavors. The members picked up notes of Sun Bum sunscreen, butterscotch, cereal grains, spice, olive brine and funky earthy flavors.
Kavalan Whisky Distillery Select is the latest release from the King Car Group to serve as an introduction to their whiskies. The malt whisky is aged for 2 years in refill casks that are 40-60 years old, meaning many of the wood flavors have been stripped out by previous whiskies. They claim using the refill casks embraces the sub-tropical climate of Taiwan. And the flavors of the whisky definitely reflected the climate influence. Notes of over-ripe banana, butterscotch, pineapple upside cake, creamy vanilla, clove, coconut, celery and an ashy finish came through.
This tasting was challenging for not only the members, but also myself. You see, whisky distilleries in East Asia have developed the capability of producing many different styles of whisky through fermentation, distillation and maturation variations. This means they're able to blend these different styles internally to create flavor profiles that are well balanced and more akin to blended Scotch. Because of this I have been unable to identify a signature style for each distillery (if you have, please let me know in the comments!). Nevertheless, about half of the members correctly guessed all three whiskies. And how fun were their tasting notes for the whiskies!
