Karuizawa 29 year old Vintage

Review by Nonjatta contributor - Serge Valentin

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"Karuizawa 29 yo Vintage 1976 (63.8%, OB, cask #6719, 25cl)
Colour: Deep amber with brownish hues.
Nose: Much more discreet than the 31 Vintage but the sherry’s well here. Water should wake it up. With water: again, that worked quite beautifully, even if we get more woody and resinous notes here, and less sherry. Quite some coal smoke, tobacco again, roasted almonds, incense again, ginger... And old walnuts. Rather clean. I like this one as well.
Mouth (neat): More ‘acceptable’ when neat but still very kirschy. Water needed again: my goodness, this is excellent again, even if a tad more spirity and rough than the 1974. More fruits and a little more rubber. Fruit eau-de-vie, walnut liqueur and prunes. Great smokiness and quite some toasted bread. Maybe the fruitiness is a bit excessive here actually.
Finish: Long, with unexpected notes of humus. Kind of a pleasant mouldiness. Very very good in any case. 89 points." (Serge`s scoring system is explained on this page.)

Alcohol
63.8 per cent (abv)
Price
The picture above is of a small 250 ml bottle. This one is also available in a 700ml for which you would have had to fork out 50,391 yen in September 2007. This shop sells this range.