Had this at a special tasting seminar by Stefan van Eycken at Whiskytalk 2019. This tasting ended up going through a bunch of ghost series bottlings, but Stefan didn't reveal which pours were which until near the end. To be honest, I thought we were getting pours from the ultra-rare ghosts and perhaps got too excited. This is ghost series number 11! Distilled at the Mars Shinshu distillery and aged in the Tsunuki warehouse. Back label says it is non-peated, not sure why.

Nose: vegetative, sugar, a sort of mild perfume, but later on there is more vanilla and boiled peanuts, and later there is a young peach, young nectarine, seems to change significantly with time.

Palate: medium body, dry, initial palate is cool, but lacks flavor, mid palate shows something like a young apricot juice, back palate shows more wood, peaches and apricots, maybe some loquat.

Finish: short to medium, light unripe peach or white peaches, vanilla, a weird floral honey.

An interesting one, going in blind I don't think it's Chichibu, Karuizawa, or Kawasaki (remember I was at a tasting seminar thinking I would get old ghost series bottlings). Well balance of flavor but it seems like flavors disappeared at some phases. Liked the unripe crisp peach and white peach elements. Quite delicious.

Image courtesy of Eric Yee.

Eric Yee

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