Komagatake Single Cask 1986/2006

Review by Serge Valentin

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"Shinshu Komagatake 1986/2006 (60.5%, OB, cask #448, 402 bottles, sherry)
Colour: Amber.
Nose: Classic mild sherriedness over a rather simple whisky. Water is really needed. Quite a lot of oak, oranges, cedar wood and dried coconut. With water: more meatiness with a little coal smoke and whiffs of rusty iron. It remains a tad too simple in my opinion.
Mouth (neat): Concentrated sweet wine over very active oak and a shy spirit. Very hot and burning. With water: it got much better! Quite a lot of bitter chocolate, prunes, coffee and old walnut; the oak gets then much bigger and quite drying. Finish: Medium long, clean. Strawberries, with the same kind of oakiness as in the 1989.
Comments: Perfectly good whisky and an unusual Bourbon background. It is almost as if this was an ex-Bourbon cask that had been sherry-treated (seems unlikely, though). SGP:441 - 80 points." (Serge`s scoring system is explained on this page.)

Alcohol
Abv 60.5 per cent
Price
This whisky is difficult to find now. Was being sold at about 14,000 yen.

The photograph is taken from this online seller.