Hanyu, 2000-2012, Ichiro's Malt The Game 3,  Shinanoya Private Cask 5th Anniversary, Cask No. 360, Red Oak Heads Hogshead Finish, 262/309, 57.5% abv.

Shinanoya released this Hanyu, along with a Karuizawa 1981, at the 2012 Tokyo Whisky Festival for their 5th Anniversary. It's the third bottle in The Game series, which is a series based on whisky distilled from Hanyu's last year of production with illustrations connecting each of the bottles... or some pre and post bottlings in the series. The series is also a little similar to Ichiro's Malt card series where they experiment with different cask finishes. Supposedly this bottling was finished for three and a half years in a hogshead with Red Oak (Quercus rubra) heads.

Nose: mostly buttered toast with honey, red apples, a slight hint of grapes.

Palate: interesting flavor... hard to describe, sweet honey and that honey coating mouthfeel some grapes, something between mellowed berries and chemicals, a mouth numbing spice similar to white pepper/peppercorn.

Finish: medium to long, heat, peaks and then becomes burnt toast, dried cherries, dried red and purple fruits in general... think mellowed gummy bears.

I felt the nose was excellent. The nose reminds me of Ichiro's Malt the card series bourbon cask finished related,... but thats about it. The flavors were quite interesting, couldn't say it's complex though as I felt there was only one discernible flavor profile that could be decoupled into two or three separate flavors, with no flavor covariance and time invariant. The finish was also interesting because I felt a peak in flavor and heat; usually most malts are uniform or quickly attenuating, but this one is like a parabola. That tasting experience more familiar with some bourbon casked Ichiro's Malt cards.

Grade: B+

Whiskynotes, Ruben Luyten, 90/100

Image courtesy of Eric Yee.

Eric Yee

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