Tasting notes for Yamazakura Asaka Peated whisky
Asaka Distillery is an operation in the Tohoku region of Japan. Reading their interesting background history, you get a feeling of a product that is steeped in the ages. Moreover, they call themselves the “distillery of wind”, which adds to the mystery. Let us dive in and discover this rarity!
Yamazakura Asaka Peated, bottled at 63,5 %
Makeup: A single cask from the Asaka Distillery with whisky distilled on 18 July 2019 and bottled on 28 July 2023. Cask # 19152 produced 240 bottles for Craft Spirits Company.
General impressions: Young whisky benefits from peat, and this 4 year old Japanese single malt does not appear to be an exception. A very fresh and Islay-like aroma, rather gently, so not the biggest peat monster. Slightly maritime, some lemons, very modest. This might be because of the cloaking influence of the high alcohol, but somehow it does not intimidate. Taking a sip of this Asaka undiluted, I am positively surprised by how gentle this whisky is. It stays very close to the core, and as I read somewhere that barley was brought in peated and ready from Islay, you could very easily mistake this for an Islay brother or sister, not unlike young Lagavulin or Ardbeg. That in itself is deeply impressive. Water brings out some herbal notes, but washes away some of the smoke and complexity that you can find in the undiluted whisky.
Conclusion: This is very good, I have to say. Some shop owners in The Netherlands still offer this and I was actually tempted to buy a bottle. But then again, for the same money you could also choose a Benromach 21 years old. So no. A little bit more pricing realism is needed for me to buy such a bottle. But since we cannot taste price, I emphasize that the whisky itself is excellent.
Score: 86 points
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