Suntory 1991 "Furudaru Shiage"

"Furudaru Shiage" means "Old barrel finish" and the red characters in the middle of the label say it is filtered through bamboo charcoal. It says it has a "mild" character. Interesting.

It is labeled "Pure Malt Whisky" and no particular distillery is mentioned, so my guess is that this one is the product of more than one distillery. That is only a guess because my Suntory used to be very lax with their labeling of malts. They were known to call single malts "pure malts". They have since reformed their ways and the relatively recent 2005 bottling date Serge gives implies that it is indeed "pure" (ie. vatted) rather than single malt.

Review by Nonjatta contributor - Serge Valentin

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"Suntory 1991 ‘Furudaru Shiage’ (43%, OB, circa 2005)
Colour: full gold.
Nose: Starts very caramelly and malty, with something toasted but no smoke. Goes on with quite some overripe apples and a faint soapiness, a little cardboard... Also quite flowery (buttercups) and marginally fruity (apricots). Quite nice but nothing really special so far, not sure that bamboo filtering added anything unusual to this one. Not sure I would notice it anyway...
Mouth: A rather punchy attack, all on caramel, honey and roasted nuts, with a rather huge maltiness and hints of cinnamon plus quite some ginger. Loads of candy sugar as well. Again, not bad at all but not too special either I’d say. Something reminding me of Chivas 12.
Finish: Quite long but very caramelly, cereally and candied, like many blends indeed I think. Average stuff in my opinion and average rating: 75 points." (Serge`s scoring system is explained on this page.)

Alcohol
43 per cent (abv)
Price700 ml - ?