Mars Shinshu Komagatake Heavily Peated, 2014-2017, Cask no. 1855, 502/578, 59.8% abv.

American white oak Asian exclusive, released November 2, 2017. Nothing much on English based boards and too lazy to check the Asian boards, but it seemed to get rave reviews by some IG and FB characters.

Nose: initially a moderate level of peat and wood smoke, more toast, some vanilla. After some time, the peat and simple smoke take a back seat.

Palate: like whole chestnuts in water residue, Chinese medicine, a little bit like pickled vegetables, the back palate is a little sweet and gets sweeter with time but nothing overwhelming, a little weird actually.

Finish: short to medium, abv lingers.

The taste is a little strange to be honest, didn't really taste any peat and every time I see "heavily peated", I think Octomore types. Not sure what happened since a "heavily peated", 3 year old whisky would most likely demonstrate the impact of peat smoking, but it was just weird. Was it the bottle or perhaps some quirky storage conditions? Perhaps the warped Brandy influenced young Port Dundas I just had affected my palate? Was my naivety a victim of keyboard parrot hordes? This Komagatake was just too strange and not focused. Had this at Bar Butler, Hong Kong.

Grade: D+

Couldn't find quantifiable, reliable reviews.

Image courtesy of Eric Yee.

Eric Yee

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