As chances are you’ll keep in mind, WhiskyNotes celebrates an anniversary on the seventh of December. Because it falls on a Saturday, we determined to rejoice a day early. Sixteen years of critiques already. A Karuizawa needs to be applicable.
Earlier this yr The Whisky Change launched The Cupboard, a digital market wherein they provide distinctive and distinctive spirits. It’s a blockchain-enabled undertaking so that you’re shopping for a digital certificates of possession. They settle for bank cards or cryptocurrency.
The bottles are bodily saved in TWE’s secured and insured facility. They will additionally ship it, must you need to take bodily possession of the bottle. I’m fairly conventional about these items, so I’d need to have a look at my bottle and treasure it, however then once more I don’t have that form of cash.
The whiskies on supply are spectacular, beginning with a 50-year-old Glenlivet – solely 12 bottles! Right now we’re celebrating with a Karuizawa 50 Yr Previous.
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Karuizawa 1965 + 1972
The primary part of this whisky is Karuizawa 1965 from sherry cask #3037, which hit the market in a number of batches as a 50-year-old. A small quantity was stored again and held in glass. This was now married with a Karuizawa 1972 matured in purple wine casks (like this different 1972) that have been recoopered in 2012. Each elements have been aged for 50 years. After painstaking trials (one among which already reached me a while in the past) they settled on a ratio of 80% 1965 and 20% 1972. This mixture rested in glass for an extra two years.
Solely 50 bottles exist, every with a singular engraving of an oriental motif or scene. All of them are on the undertaking web site. Every field repeats the motif, and a complentary e book explains the philosophy behind the whisky.
Time to fill the one applicable glass for this type of whisky, the blender’s glass.
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Karuizawa 50 yo – Marriage 1965 & 1972 (54,8%, The Whisky Change ‘Cupboard’ 2024, 50 btl.)
Nostril: it doesn’t scream Karuizawa immediately – at first you possibly can be tricked into considering this was a really previous cognac. Dried apricots, whiffs of fig syrup but additionally mango beneath. Then a bit of cinnamon and heather honey seems, together with delicate gingery notes. Furnishings polish, all the time good. Blood oranges, marmalade and Spanish membrillo. Hints of oriental pastry within the background, together with some previous natural tea leaves, eucalyptus and refined hints of cigar containers.
Mouth: fairly highly effective – this ain’t cognac! There’s black peppercorn and even hints of rye spice. Then natural honey and natural tea, with mint and eucalyptus, resulting in black tea and cigar leaves after some time. Mid-palate a burst of more energizing fruits seems, with extra blood orange and marmalade, hints of kumquat, mango and grapefruit (together with peels). Loads of treasured, oriental wooden as nicely, cedar but additionally smoky sandalwood. Fairly earthy, however with refreshing resinous touches and liquorice.
End: lengthy and darkish, on black tea and bitter chocolate, with some charred echoes, menthol, a hoppy be aware and a little bit of incense.
So right here’s a Karuizawa that shows the magnificence and refinement of very previous cognac and really previous Scotch. The sherry is straightforward to note (because it ought to in a great Karuizawa imho) but it surely has extra layers and refinements than a number of the (additionally superb) sherry bombs we had earlier than. It’s extra within the fashion of those historic Glen Grants from Gordon & MacPhail, for example. Nevertheless, on the palate the oriental, darkish profile of the distillery prevails, with a shocking trace of vivid unique fruits.
I maintain questioning how a lot area stays for such tasks within the present whisky market, however the whisky itself is definitely a chunk of liquid historical past. At € 44,000 ex VAT per (50cl) bottle, I’m certain there’s some finances left to have it delivered to your own home, the place it may be treasured and admired. Possibly even… savoured?
