The Southside Whisky Club  


Karuizawa Spirit of Asama | 55.0% | Japan
69
64
37
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Meet Deets
Meet #37   |   13/04/13   |   Hosted by Phil
It was time for a Japanese whisky night, with 6 bottles to get through (one we'd tasted before).. we got our heads down and achieved our goals, sampling some interesting delights from far afield.
Other bottles sampled:
#67 Yoichi 10yo | SSWC review 37a
#68 Nikka Coffey Grain | SSWC review 37b
#70 Hakushu 12yo | SSWC review 37d
#71 Yamazaki 18yo | SSWC review 37e

Japanese Whisky Club   Bottles #33a - #33e were all tasted as part of a Japanese whisky night, where we tasted 6 bottles (one was a control, the previously-tried Nikka 'From The Barrel'). The image to the right shows the distilleries we tasted bottles from, as well as when they came into existence and who owns them (with 'S' denoting a now-silent still).

Smells
Picture a wood....with your nose. Okay? Stay with me, we're talking pine here, but dry, like driftwood or black pepper, freshly ground. Maybe there's a strawberry bush nearby, who knows? But it's not fruity, it's cheese sticks and balsamic vinegar. But then there's also molasses? We just dunno with this one!
Tastes
The taste is really good, right up the nose and rich like, really rash and with a lot going on like a bread and butter pudding but made with sourdough and with loads of spices. Umami! It's a treacly, meaty taste like a liquid oxo cube. Tobaccoey, like a meeting by a fire to eat a pudding. Talking of fire there's a nice fieriness here, flambéed almost. But there's a luxury in that, the sweetness of eating a sugar sheet, being on the beach in summer with an ice cream and a parasol, or a shot of nectar. Some might say like sucking off a bee, and it cumming into the back of your throat suggesting this bottle came late in the evening (badoom tsh).


  IT'S NAMED AFTER A VOLCANO!
Finish & Comments
This thing just sinks. Blink and you'll...well you'll probably still catch it but it'll be well on its way. We're saying medium, but on the short side like Steffi Graf serving on a 15 mile tennis court. It's spicy or maybe popping candy as it dissipates, the sweetness of marshmallows sneaking in towards the end. All in all though, a cardboardy finish.
Cost
~£63 (70cl)
Useful Links
The Whisky Exchange: Karuizawa Spirit of Asama   |   http://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/P-18100.aspx
Rating
We've always scored out of 10 in our group (see number in red box, below), with scores regularly given across that spectrum. The value out of 100 below is adjusted to the scale most commonly used for whisky reviews, to allow for better comparison.


88 / 100


7.5
Average score



Detailed scores (out of 10)
Ali: 7.7
Fran: 7.4
Hamish: 7
Jamie: 8.5
Laura: 5.8
Liz: 8.6
Martin: 7.7
Phil: 7.3
Shelley: 7.8
Tasting Game Points (out of 0)
No scores available.

 


 
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