Mars Whisky's Tsunuki Single Cask Set Pits Tsunuki Aging Against Yakushima For La Maison Du Whisky's 2026 Collection

Mars Whisky is made by Hombo Shuzo, a family company founded in 1902. La Maison du Whisky's partnership with Mars began in 2015, after it encountered the brand through Japanese whisky importer, Number One Drinks.

Mars's Tsunuki Distillery opened in 2016, on the former site of a shochu distillery in southern Kyushu. The most recognisable building is a black 26-metre tower that looms over the grounds. Whisky production is led by Master Distiller Tatsuro Kusano, whose range runs from unpeated malt spirit to malt peated to about 50 ppm.

Since 2022, LMDW has been releasing recurring single cask sets from Mars Whisky that explore various levers to pull in whisky production. For instance, in 2023, the collection included both Komagatake (another distillery of Mars) and Tsunuki spirit. In 2024, there was an exploration on cask types and peat level. 

This year's multi-bottle Mars single cask whisky release in partnership with LMDW focuses on Mars Tsunuki Distillery, with contrasting maturation locations (two in the distillery itself, two in Yakushima Island), contrasting bourbon and sherry cask styles, and slightly different peating levels.

The climate in which the whisky is matured has often been one of the favourite subjects for exploration by Mars. While Tsunuki has a warmer and more humid climate (compared to Komagatake), Yakushima pushes temperature and humidity further still, producing a steeper angel's share and more intense interaction between spirit and wood.

Let's take a closer look at the full quartet.

Mars Tsunuki 9 Year Old 2017 Lightly Peated Sherry Cask, Tsunuki Aging

Japanese Single Malt, 58.6% ABV, Single Cask #T61, Oloroso Sherry Cask, Limited Edition of 436 Bottles, LMDW Exclusive

At 3.5 ppm, this has the lowest peating level of the set. It was distilled and matured at Tsunuki in an Oloroso sherry cask for 9 years before bottling.

Official Tasting Notes

Colour: Orange copper.

Aroma: Complex, slender. Set against a backdrop of barley that is at once verdant and malty, the aroma palette restores citrus (candied lemon, orange), dried fruit (persimmon, walnut, chestnut), and toffee fragrances of great class. Gradually, it becomes slightly earthy (dry peat), rooty (gentian, ginger), and ashen (cigar).

Taste: Characterful, broad. Chocolaty, exotic (mango, banana, guava), herbaceous (alfalfa, cut hay), and infused (sage, linden blossom), the flavour palette is excitingly dynamic and fresh. A long licorice-toned powdery (cocoa), heady (iris concrete), delicately peated, saline, and camphorated sequence follows.

Finish: Full-bodied, noble. Candied flavours of dried currant, fig, and very ripe banana illustrate its solar and mature character. In another register, but equally complex, retro-olfaction emphasizes its animal (smoked meat) and empyreumatic (hearth of a fireplace) character.

Mars Tsunuki 5 Year Old 2020 Peated Bourbon Barrel, Yakushima Aging

Japanese Single Malt, 58.6% ABV, Single Cask #2364, Bourbon Barrel, Limited Edition of 167 Bottles, LMDW Exclusive

Now the dial moves from 3.5 ppm to 50 ppm. Distilled in 2020, this single malt was sent to Yakushima for 5 years in a bourbon barrel, where temperatures range from 5°C in winter to 35°C in summer.

LMDW goes so far as to compare it with Laphroaig for its influences of chocolate, camphor, iodine, leather, salt and tar.

Official Tasting Notes

Colour: Old gold.

Aroma: Rich, intense. Letting a peat with chocolaty, camphorated, iodine, and bucolic (daisy, buttercup) accents express itself fully, the aroma palette is remarkable for its fullness. With aeration, it becomes more medicinal (mustard), marine (fleur de sel), and animal (smoked fish, shellfish). Also note the presence of honeyed (acacia, linden blossom) and exotic (pineapple) scents.

Taste: Full-bodied, smooth. Continuing the liqueur-like and fruity nose, the flavour palette is refreshed by mentholated and vegetal (pipe tobacco) flavours. Then, mid-palate, peat occupies center stage once again. It brings with it soot, tar, and essential oils (thyme, rosemary, oregano).

Finish: Expansive, smooth. Deeply linked to the end of the palate, it now displays meaty (bacon, bresaola) and terpenic (lava) tones. This mineral evolution is sublimated by heated asphalt scents. As an apotheosis, on retro-olfaction, barley grains affix a fundamental malty/smoky signature.

Mars Tsunuki 5 Year Old 2020 Peated Bourbon Barrel, Tsunuki Aging

Japanese Single Malt, 62.9% ABV, Single Cask #T2048, Bourbon Barrel, Limited Edition of 195 Bottles, LMDW Exclusive

This seems to be the natural A/B Test partner to the earlier Cask #2364. It shares the same 2020 vintage, 5-year age statement, bourbon-barrel maturation and 50 ppm peat specification, but the cask remained at Tsunuki.

LMDW describes an "ethereal", "radiant" but leaner and greener whisky, opening with lemon, eucalyptus, ash and stone before turning towards coconut, agave and medicinal balm. 

Official Tasting Notes

Colour: Bright gold.

Aroma: Fine, deep. From the start, aromas of lemon, eucalyptus, ash, and schist lend great elegance to an otherwise airy aroma palette. Over time, it becomes medicinal (Tiger Balm), milky (coconut), herbaceous (agave), and empyreumatic (Armenian paper).

Taste: Dynamic yet smooth. At first, flavours of Williams pear take the taste buds by storm. Then, this juicy opening fades in favor of a peat covered in intense smoke. Full of vivacity, the end of the palate reveals notes of candied lemon and other, more mineral notes of slate.

Finish: Clean, precise. Herbaceous (green barley), mentholated, and ashy, it also shows vanilla and exotic notes (banana, pineapple). Realistically recreating the vision of peat blocks drying in the sun, over time it becomes peppery and saline (samphire, sea purslane). On their part, the dry extracts of the empty glass write a lively ode to malty/smoked barley.

Mars Tsunuki 8 Year Old 2017 Peated Sherry Cask, Yakushima Aging

Japanese Single Malt, 57.7% ABV, Single Cask #2095, Sherry Puncheon, Limited Edition of 160 Bottles, LMDW Exclusive

Also with 50 ppm of peat, this uses a sherry puncheon and has been aged at Yakushima for 8 years.

It brings intensity from all three of the collection’s principal variables with a configuration of heavily peated Tsunuki spirit, sherry wood and eight years in Yakushima’s heat.

Indeed, its profile appears to be the darkest of the quartet with notes of oily peat and soot meeting brandied cherry, mango, dark chocolate among other things. 

Official Tasting Notes

Colour: Old gold with coppery glints.

Aroma: Rich, deep. Initially, aromas of oily peat, soot, rancio (brandied cherry, mango), dark chocolate, and polish (varnish, shoe polish) lock horns in a high-level olfactive duel. With aeration, the aroma palette becomes more malty, spicy (ginger, clove), and fermentative (porridge). Superb.

Taste: Noble, full-bodied. Medicinal (tincture of iodine, methylene blue), empyreumatic (charred wood), animalistic (bacon), and at the same time apricoty, citrusy (orange), and overflowing with exoticism (mango, persimmon, guava), the palate is a seamless continuation of the nose. Saline and mouth-watering, the end of the palate is adorned with milky and creamy nuances (almond, pecan).

Finish: Long, concentrated. Shrouded in the smoke swirls of a powerful Havana cigar, it turns intensely exotic (mango, persimmon), malty (germinating barley), earthy, rooty (gentian), and medicinal (mustard seed). On the retro-olfaction, spring aromas of dandelion, daffodil, and warm asphalt intertwine in a very harmonious way.

Kanpai!

88 Bamboo Editorial Team