Ichiro's Malt and Grain, Limited Edition, Japanese Blended Whisky, 48% abv.

This rare bottle is part of the informally named "leaf series", which include the white, red, green, and gold releases. Whereas the "sister" bottle, named the "World Blended Whisky" has a bluish-purple leaf with gold trim on the label (IG: Dec 31, 2018), this Japanese Blended Whisky is more of a grayish-bluish-purple leaf with silver trim on the label. It is also known as the Black Leaf. Knowing Japanese distillery culture and Ichiro's Malt and Grain resources, this blend is most likely composed of Chichibu, Hanyu, and Kawasaki juice.

Nose: good body, thick chocolate, caramel, light sherry, light fruit rollups, honey wax. Essentially everything nice.

Palate: heavy, chocolate, nutty, oily, a lot going on, extremely well-balanced, really good.

Finish: medium to long, chocolate coating, light heat.

Excellent! I can see why it won #1 blended. It's quite sweet and a little viscous, all the elements worked well. It's like a sherry bomb but with 60% chocolate to displace some of the sherry. I really don't know how to describe it, but it gets better with each sip, as the flavors become more and more "balanced", you are less distracted from the intensity and can appreciate the addition of fruits and dessert-like sweets on the profile. However for some reason it tastes better than the other Hanyu and Kawasaki blends from my weak recollection services.

Grade: B+

World's Best Blended Limited Release, 2018 World Whiskies Awards