Yamazaki ‘Vintage Malt’ 1992/2005

Review by Serge Valentin

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"Yamazaki ‘Vintage Malt’ 1992/2005 (56%, OB, hogshead, white oak)
Colour: Pale gold.
Nose: Expressive, starting on quite some olive oil and peat, very vegetal, organic and leathery. Chlorophyll, leaves, ginger, sandalwood, incense and pine resin. With water: oh, it got quite simpler, more on grass and vanilla. As if water had shut it down – and yes we gave this one time (it just got a tad more pearish). Bizarre…
Mouth (neat): Punchy but ‘drinkable’, with a little peat and a rather big ‘greenness’. Walnuts, salicornias, mint flavoured nougat, mastic sweets… Notes of pears and pineapples behind all that. Very good, extremely satisfying if not very complex - yet? With water: once again, it got somewhat simpler. Not bad at all, but simpler (pineapple and green spices, cardamom?)
Finish: Medium long, fruity, with a ‘return’ on vanilla crème. Comments: a good Yamazaki but it seems to lack most of its brothers’ complexity and ‘fullness’.
SGP:542 – 80 points." (Serge`s scoring system is explained on this page.)