A single Spanish oak sherry butt from The Cask of Yamazaki series, distilled in January 1990 and bottled in October 2007 at 59%. The label carries cask number OM70172, so every bottle comes from that one butt.
About This Whisky
The Cask of Yamazaki label bottles one cask at a time, with no vatting. This butt spent seventeen years in wood, gave 438 bottles, and was bottled at full strength with no water added. The result is far more intense than the standard range: dark, concentrated sherry fruit with coffee and bitter chocolate, and a big alcoholic grip that softens with a little water.
Tasting Profile
- Nose: Black cherry, raisin and dark chocolate, with polished oak and sherry spice.
- Palate: Concentrated and powerful: dried fruit, espresso, cocoa and orange peel.
- Finish: Sherry, sandalwood and bitter chocolate, warming and slow to fade.
Serving & Food
At 59% start with a small measure in a Glencairn, taste once neat, then add cool water a little at a time. After dinner with a Montecristo-style cigar, dark fruitcake or 85% chocolate, it makes a slow, contemplative pour.
How to Enjoy
Serious single cask drinkers and anyone building a record of Yamazaki's cask-strength sherry butts.
Product Details
Producer: Suntory
Distillery: Yamazaki
Series: The Cask of Yamazaki
Distilled: January 1990
Bottled: October 2007
Age: 17 years
Cask: Spanish oak sherry butt #OM70172
Outturn: 438 bottles
Strength: Cask strength
ABV: 59%
Country: Japan
Style: Japanese single malt whisky, single cask
Volume: 700mL
About the Distillery
Yamazaki runs six wash stills and six spirit stills, and Suntory varies fermentation, distillation and cask type so that one site can produce many different malts. Few distilleries anywhere attempt that range under one roof.
Single casks like this one show a single strand of that range on its own. The distillery also keeps a Whisky Library of around 7,000 bottles of unblended malt, a record of the many cask styles laid down over the years.