Five Yamazaki single malts from the 2020 Edition series, each drawn from one type of cask that normally goes into the distillery's vattings. Suntory released them in November 2020 through wholesalers to bars in Japan rather than to shops, and all five are bottled at 48% without an age statement.
About This Set
The set breaks Yamazaki into its parts. The Puncheon comes from squat 480-litre American oak puncheons; the low ratio of wood to spirit slows maturation and keeps the malt close to its original character. The Bordeaux Wine Cask uses French oak ex-wine casks and brings a sweet-and-sour, berry-led edge. The Spanish Oak edition is drawn only from sherry casks made of Spanish oak, which gives more tannin and a raisined richness. The Peated Malt collects the heavily peated component, aged in American oak barrels and hogsheads, that makes up a very small share of standard Yamazaki. The Mizunara shows the Japanese oak on its own, with its incense-like finish.
Tasting Profile
- Nose: Across the five: green apple and acacia honey (Puncheon), berries and spice (Bordeaux), raisin and dried tomato (Spanish Oak), smoke and peach (Peated), custard and cinnamon (Mizunara).
- Palate: Mellow butterscotch, thick red-fruited wine-cask weight, concentrated sweet and sour sherry oak, smoked pineapple and dense, aromatic mizunara sweetness.
- Finish: From light oak bitterness and French oak spice to lingering acidity, persistent peat and a long note of Japanese incense.
Serving & Food
Taste them side by side at room temperature in matching tulip glasses, lightest first: Puncheon, Peated, Bordeaux, Spanish Oak, then Mizunara. Keep plain water nearby to reset between pours. Sashimi suits the Puncheon, yakitori the Peated, and dark chocolate the Spanish Oak.
How to Enjoy
A guided tasting that shows how much the cask shapes one distillery's spirit, or a complete run of the 2020 series for a Yamazaki shelf.
Product Details
Producer: Suntory
Distillery: Yamazaki
Country: Japan
Region: Osaka Prefecture
Style: Japanese single malt whisky set
Edition: Yamazaki 2020 Edition
Included editions: Puncheon, Bordeaux Wine Cask, Spanish Oak, Peated Malt and Mizunara 2020 Editions
Age: No age statement
ABV: 48% each
Set format: 5 x 700mL bottles
Volume: 700mL each
About the Distillery
Yamazaki stands where the Katsura, Uji and Kizu rivers meet on the southern edge of Kyoto. The meeting of the rivers creates a misty, humid climate and gives the distillery some of the softest water in Japan.
Temperature and humidity swing widely through the year, and Suntory credits that variation for the way its casks mature, a process it calls Suntory Maturation. Each cask type in this set has aged in that same climate, so the differences you taste come from the wood.