Another famous bottling series from Whisky Talk, the Phoenix and the Sun series. Interestingly, not Komagatake... I wonder what is the real difference? The label artwork for this series has been amazing and quite eye-catching. The earlier releases are a bit hard to find and can fetch a hefty price tag. I am fortunate to be near Fukuoka where I can try these rare bottlings. Had this in 2019.

Nose: a good amount of smokey wood, some grass, hints of grape and pear juice, candied fruits.

Palate: full body, viscous, initial palate has some thick juice, mid palate has the spice build up, spiced wood, smoked wood, old grape juice, some peat smoke, grape jelly, back palate has some grape jelly. It's a actually mostly grape jelly. Mars makes all kinds of stuff I guess.

Finish: medium, mostly grape jelly residue, grape cough syrup, light vanilla, light plastic, some heat left.

This one straddles between Islay peat and grape jelly variants imho. Much better than the other Phoenixes but so different from Mars. Not much going on compared to other Komagatake, which I tend to enjoy more.

Image courtesy of Eric Yee.

Eric Yee

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