Ichiro`s Malt Single Cask 2000 - "flavour bomb"

Very good. Surprised I could drink this at cask strength. I found I actually preferred it neat.

A fairly restrained nose: dessert wine with a very distant smell of a wood cutting yard after the rain. The first taste is powerful but smooth. A bit Bourbonish. Creme Caramel. Fleeting nut and raisin flavours in there too. But they added way to much alcohol to this pudding. Hey, hold on a minute! It`s all alcohol, and mighty alcohol at that. The finish is exhilarating, like walking out on a freezing early morning, the air so cold it hurts your chest. Then a lingering bitter but not unpleasant taste at the top of the mouth, as if you had been chewing on a fresh green twig. This one may be only 5 years old but it is a real bomb of flavours. It is also well paced, each phase given time and space to develop independently.

When diluted to more normal strength, the flavours were more floral. Still smooth and elegant.

Details
Distilled 2000
Bottled June 2005
Cask No. 6076 Puncheon American Oak (second fill after 6 years and 9 months maturation for grain whisky).
Non coloured, non chill filtered
516 bottled

Alcohol
Abv 60 per cent

Price (April 2007)
720 ml - 5,300 yen