By now the rum community is well aware that one of Japan's most artisanal rum producers, the one-man distillery that is Yoshiharu Takeuchi's Nine Leaves, is bidding its last farewell.

As a result of an abrupt necessity for Takeuchi-san to take over his family's business, he's made the decision to cease all production at Shiga Prefecture's Nine Leaves distillery, and has since sold off all remaining rum on hand, as well as his distillation stills. It's unimaginable what a difficult decision it must have been, with the distillery after all a project that he's worked incredibly hard on, and often feels like it was really just in its early innings. To that end, it's said that Takeuchi-san had decided to call down the chief of Italian rum icon Velier, Luca Gargano, to the distillery where he thus handed it all over. With the site no longer in existence, it's said that the remaining rums and even the distillation stills have all been shipped over to France.

The Unsun Karuta cards collection.

And in honour of Takeuchi-san's work, Velier has thus decided to pay homage to the remaining casks in the form of a final series of bottlings, the Unsun Karuta collection. Named after the traditional Japanese card game, each bottling will feature on its label one of the 75 cards in the Unsun Karuta game set. The collection will include a combination of unaged and aged rums, as well as both multi-cask blends and single cask expressions, with the first five cards having just been released.

Whilst there is much to the Nine Leaves story, let's take a quick recap into the key details.

Kokuto black sugar from Okinawa.

To start with, rum-making is not completely unheard of in Japan. In particular, closer over to Okinawa where black sugar is produced from sugarcane, several sugar manufacturers themselves have engaged in producing rums albeit largely as a means of finding as many means by which they are able to digest their black sugar stock. Yet, one Yoshiharu Takeuchi finds himself all the way inland closer to Lake Biwa, Japan's largest lake, where having grown up in an automobile parts manufacturing family, Takeuchi-san had yearned for a creative outlet. After some consideration, he decided upon rum, given its sufficiently wide canvas with little regulations as to how it has to be produced.

With several strokes of fortuitous luck, he was able to find the spot upon which he would establish Nine Leaves distillery (important as it sat on a deep natural spring that supplied fresh water), so named after his family's crest composed of nine bamboo leaves which symbolises strength in unity, as well as a reliable kokuto black sugar supplier. Subsequently Takeuchi-san was able to enlist the help of cult Japanese whiskymaker Ichiro Akuto of Chichibu Distillery to help provide him with the necessary training and guidance in setting his distillery up.

Yoshiharu Takeuchi at the Nine Leaves distillery.

He would thus employ the use of Forsyths pot stills that he self-assembled to distill his wash made of baker's yeast fermented Okinawan kokuto black sugar that's been fermented for an extended period of time. At Nine Leaves, Takeuchi-san would do everything himself, from processing the sugar to initiating the fermentation and carrying out the distillation, tasting his way through the cuts, and then even emptying out the spent lees, and finally filling the rum into casks. This is on top of the hour's and a half drive that Takeuchi-san has to make from his home to the distillery, where he would stay the night to ensure that the rum-making was fully complete. When it came time to bottle, he would enlist the help of his wife and his young sons to apply the labels to the bottle.

Beyond the inherent behemoth of a task that it was to simply run the distillery himself, Takeuchi-san also faced steep challenges such as having to manage his inventories between what could be spared for ageing and what needed to be quickly sold in order to meet Japan's legal requirements on minimum output for keeping his distilling license. Yet Takeuchi-san readily faced the task and developed several flagship expressions, from the Nine Leaves Clear unaged rum to the American Oak and French Oak versions of the Angel's Half aged yet fairly young rums, and then his more experimental series, namely the Encrypted series. His goal was ultimately to produce a rum that could distinctly and precisely deliver specific flavours much as an individual musical instrument would produce a single chord, as opposed to an orchestra with its symphony. 

Takeuchi-san as he watched over the packing up of Nine Leaves.

As Takeuchi-san had often mentioned, he had expressed earnest hopes that the Nine Leaves distillery would become a family heirloom and be passed on to his sons, although now it appears certain that that would no longer prove to be realised.

Thus we're now left with what remains of Nine Leaves.

Today we'll be trying the first four expressions released of the Velier Nine Leaves Unsun Karuta Collection, namely:

• Nine Leaves 2023 Last Drops (Ace of Oru), 62% ABV
• Nine Leaves 2017 Four of Isu, 7 Year Old, Bourbon Barrel, 59% ABV
• Nine Leaves 2017 Four of Guru, 7 Year Old, Russian Virgin Oak, 58% ABV
• Nine Leaves 2016 King of Kotsu, 8 Year Old, American Oak Single Cask #7, 59% ABV

Let's get into it.

Nine Leaves 2023 Last Drops (Ace of Oru), 62% ABV

As the name suggests, this was bottled from the last distillation run before Nine Leaves closed in 2023. It's thus an unaged expression made of kokuto black sugar.

Tasting Notes

Colour: Clear

Aroma: Immediately there's that fresh vegetal cane juice and crushed cane, with this deeper toned, more earthy and herbal backdrop of black licorice, sarsaparilla and black sugar kuromitsu syrup. In between there are heady and vivid aromas of violet and linden florals, banana blossoms and fresh linen sheets, even some lavender. It's firm and rich, and with time gives more on cola syrup, vanilla cream and tangerines. It's well composed and layered really cohesively.

Taste: Really rich here yet at the same time incredibly broad and mellow, keeping its presence with a good intensity yet at the same time rounded in texture. It starts off with green notes of banana blossoms, olives green and black, with a tinge of salinity. It's rather savoury and comes through almost meaty and umami. This is all accompanied by this herbal quality of cough syrup, with a concentration on herbal roots. More of that licorice, angelica and sarsaparilla roots that gives an almost medicinal bitterness. It's really well-integrated and hard to pick individual notes apart. In between there are these wafts of intense florals of violets and linden that's carried over. It's giving lots of complexity and at the same time it has this unhurried sensibility - the flavours moves like an iceberg, massive yet glacial in leading into this remarkable depth.

Finish: More medicinal, herbal and savoury here. It almost intensifies and keeps consistent all the flavours yet turning them all much more vivid. It's saturated with all these medicinal roots, black licorice and bouillon cubes. It's a long finish with this lingering savouriness of black olives accompanied by some cough syrup.

My Thoughts

This was a really enjoyable, complex and well composed white rum - and I say this with a good deal of sadness given that it is also the last of what's left from Takeuchi-san. I can't help but feel a tinge of it being such a shame that this is a snapshot of where Takeuchi-san had gotten his craft up until and I can truly see how far he's come. They say that the true judge of a good spirit is to taste it right off the still. Good rum starts with good cane spirit, and no amount of wood can fix anything less than that. In this case, this is properly superb spirit.

The first thing I really want to point out here is just how complex, distinct, mellow and cohesive the Last Drops is. It comes through with such a bouquet of aromas that are at the top end fresh and raw, yet also herbal and rich at the back. That span of aromas tones has such range and yet moves through so seamlessly, also vivid and heady. The same goes for how it tastes, with again this incredible depth that is really harmonious and married as one body, that each flavour is fused together richly yet remaining distinct. It brings out all these unique flavours of black sugar syrup that gives you a clear sense of its origins as well. And whilst the body has this firmness and presence to hold its own, it's also really mellow and broad shouldered. You get the sense that this is quite something yet it also moves you through its flavours slowly, bringing you through its depth.

It then picks up the intensity and pace into the finish that makes whatever you experienced on the body seem like a fever dream. Keeping its flavours consistent with perhaps alittle more saltiness here, it imbues this incredible deep and all encompassing warmth and carries itself on an incredibly long finish. 

Last Drops gives you every indication that this was a highly intentional spirit that was everything it was by design. It's long known that Takeuchi-san having ran the distillery entirely by himself, would constantly tweak and obsess over every detail to create the sort of rum he wanted - and it clearly shows here where we're talking pure distillate Day 0. It's complex and has a great body, seamlessly cusping a very complete range of flavours set across an impressive depth. It would have been amazing to see what Nine Leaves could have been if only Takeuchi-san was given more time. For now, this snapshot gives us a clear understanding of just how far he's gotten and how much expertise he had developed in creating a superb spirit.

Onwards!

Nine Leaves 2017 Four of Isu, 7 Year Old, Bourbon Barrel, 59% ABV

This is a small batch blend composed of 4 ex-Bourbon casks, all distilled in 2017.

Tasting Notes

Colour: Amber

Aroma: Incredibly rich and with great depth. It's filled in with warm tones of brown sugar, cola syrup, sarsaparilla and root beer. This leads into candied tanghulu mandarin oranges, light yet bright citrusy accents, along with some coconut flakes and some violet and linden florals. It gets more herbal and citrusy with time, developing into fingerlimes and orange blossoms, weaved into butterscotch with a scoop of vanilla cream. Light touches of baking spices of cinnamon and cloves as well.

Taste: Medium-bodied here, yet it's rich and with some waxiness as well. It starts citrusy, with some bits of char, both of which combining to give charred citrus peels. It gets into more on caramel, butterscotch, with some nuttiness of peanut shells. It almost feels Bourbon-esque. At the core there's some fresh cane juice that's fresh and gently sweet in a lightly vegetal fashion. It's always this overt citrusy butterscotch that wraps around the cane juice that leads into a really precise and compact savoury bitterness of charred wood that all comes together with great balance, with no element overdoing it yet coming together in a really enjoyable sequence that gives a really nice development to the body.

Finish: That char savouriness persists into the finish, bringing out some bitterness here, yet at the same time it continues to be canvassed by rich tones of caramel. Streams of vanilla cream emerge, with this supple confectionary quality. Some peanut skins giving off tannins though just gently. A lingering savouriness and a light dryness, along with accents of orange peels. Really long spicy finish.

My Thoughts

This was remarkably delicious and the favourite of the lot! It's really reminiscent of Bourbon with those toffee, peanut shells, vanilla cream and clove spices accented by orange blossoms. And so already this noses and tastes incredible, and with those great easy to love aromas and a nice punchiness on the palate with also those waxy quality, the flavours come through really vibrant and rich, yet at the same time balanced and succinct. It takes you right into the thick of the flavours and it never seems to over stay or hang on too long, it's compact and well-integrated which should also be credited to the blending of the casks done here.

That said, I must caveat that as much as I really enjoyed this one so much, it does seem rather cask driven as opposed to spirit led and so the cane quality does take a backseat and I was only able to find it right at the core on the palate. Nevertheless, this was my top pick.

Nine Leaves 2017 Four of Guru, 7 Year Old, Russian Virgin Oak, 58% ABV

Another small batch blend of 4 ex-Russian Oak casks, all distilled in 2017.

Tasting Notes

Colour: Deep Gold

Aroma: Deep aromas of rich honey, with some gentler warm tones of caramel and vanilla cream, as well as some warm banana bread, garnished with just a little bit of banana blossoms. It's a little gluey at times and leans alittle more honeyed and of bananas green and yellow. With time it's giving honey lapped onto warm banana bread. This leans brighter.

Taste: Lightly punchy but really quite mellow altogether. It starts off alittle spicy but quickly falls away to give more honey, banana blossoms and baked bananas. More on black olives that starts to bring out some savouriness, along with alittle bit of ghee. Some medicinal roots comes through as well giving alittle bit of that medicinal bitterness.

Finish: More savouriness and greenness comes through here with more of those banana blossoms, alittle bit of green olives and really quite waxy. At the back it's got this floor of intensely peppery spicy black pepper. It's also building up this saltiness and ghee on the finish that lingers, backed up by some light honey and more banana blossoms.

My Thoughts

This one came off much brighter and also less rich, although by no means was it thin. Where there were big confectionary tones in the last one, this one was more green, savoury and also a touch medicinal. It channels a flavour profile that would be more familiar to Jamaican rum lovers yet it is without that fiery, super synthetic bit of it. It's quite mellow and even alittle syrupy, yet combines everything that a Jamaican rum lover would die for. I did wish that this had alittle more richness and depth to it, although I concede I did taste a much heavier one just prior. This one's more clean, lighter, brighter and more gourmand.

Nine Leaves 2016 King of Kotsu, 8 Year Old, American Oak Single Cask, 59% ABV

Our first single cask, this is Cask #7, an ex-American Oak cask distilled in 2016.

Tasting Notes

Colour: Deep Gold

Aroma: Sweet and rich streams of caramel and butterscotch, with these citrusy accents. There's a bright yet gentle lemon-y scent that comes through as well, with some bits of peanut shells. Also these florals of lavender and irises. It's rich and firm, yet leans a notch brighter. With time it starts to develop a lightly tropical vibe of pineapples and also some mint. It has a really lifted quality too.

Taste: Medium-bodied, this comes through rich yet brighter and more lifted. It's starts off alittle punchy yet works its way through really seamlessly, keeping this consistent intensity with a body of butterscotch that comes through in just a second that almost instantly buoys the body. It's giving burnt citrus with honey, along with a more vegetal side of crushed cane, banana blossoms, green bananas and just a couple of green olives. At the core its waxy and more tropical and green, wrapped around by this citrusy and more confectionary aspect. There's a tinge of medicinal bitterness here, and alittle bit of sarsaparilla too.

Finish: Some of that burnt orange peel bitterness carries through into the finish, backed up by honey that holds back the bitterness well. Incredibly deep and all encompassing warmth that's glossed by all this honey, butterscotch and purple florals. A really long and intense finish that's delivered resolutely.

My Thoughts

Very interestingly (and perhaps it should be unsurprising), this felt much more singular compared to the Small Batch Bourbon that we tried earlier. It almost feels more distinct and precise in that sense, and yet we do find those familiar confectionary, floral and citrusy elements markings here. This comes off a touch brighter and alittle less rich as well, holding off on some of that depth we saw from before, but that does well to reveal some of those brighter tones of pineapples and mint that we didn't quite get from before. The savouriness of char marks integrates really nicely here to give lots of burnt citrus which is for me the dominant note this time. This feels more elegant and more approachable. And what a finish! It's outstandingly long and with such a deep and soothing warmth, wow!

Thank you Takeuchi-san for the courage, your creative spirit, dedication to your craft, and pursuit of an incredible rum. We've never spoken but I have great admiration for your work and it's been incredible following along this journey. Wishing you all the best, even as I can't help but also wish you were able to see Nine Leaves through. Your work and story won't be forgotten.

PS. If I could taste them again to best appreciate each one, I would go in this order from first to last: Last Drops, Four Of Guru (Russian Oak), King Of Kotsu (Bourbon Single Cask), and lastly Four Of Isu (Small Batch Bourbon)

Kanpai!

@111hotpot