Hanyu, 2000-2012, Ichiro's Malt The Game 4, Shinanoya Private Cask 5th Anniversary, Cask No. 9805, Rum Wood Finish, 49/232, 59% abv.

The fourth edition of Shinanoya's The Game series has the Hanyu finished in barrels that previously held rum, although I have no idea for how long or what kind of rum. The label is very interesting as it represents the Gun Festival of Ogano, a city next to Chichibu (小鹿野町の鉄砲), that occurs every second Saturday and Sunday in December.

Nose: some grapes, some burnt toast, very similar to that Ichiro's malt bourbon cask finish, vanilla, coconut shavings, generally pina colada sweet.

Palate: dry, another strange one, but very full and robust on the flavor front, butter shows up later. Slighly stronger on the spice fronts relative to the mizunara cask version and loads more than the red oak heads version, but other than that, virtually the same (am I super drunk?!). I guess the closest thing I could think of is a dehydrated very sweet and buttery pina colada without coconut... not that I have ever tasted a dehydrated pina colada, especially made with no cocount flavors.

Finish: long, dry and sweet, spice is a little numbing at this point.

What the heck?!?! Another strange one, and only slightly different from the mizunara finished cask 1302 the game! This one is not as sweet though, more dry. The finish and nose were quite nice though. These rum influenced whiskies are a little uncommon and I am not sure what the influence should be. I think I got the basic sherry, general american oak/bourbon, and sauternes casks down though. Everything else seems too variable. Pics were really hard to take on this one.

Grade: B

Image courtesy of Eric Yee.

Eric Yee

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