White Oak Akashi 15 Cask# 40100

This Akashi White Oak was matured for 12.5 years in sherry casks and then finished in Japanese oak casks for 2.5 years. Bottled at 58% vol.

• Nose: Sherry, oak, glue, roasted chestnut, a bit solvent and plywood, burnt chocolate
• Mouth: Bitter, alcoholic, spices, oak and plywood/cardboard
• Finish: Roasted oak, warm a bit bitter, sherry, cherry schnapps, smoke and chocolate

Comment: This is very flavorful, quite funky and a rather unusual one but the bitterness and roughness, especially the plywood notes really harm the overall picture.

78 points

So I did a re-tasting of this one since I heard only good things about this one, and guess what, a very different experience. I don' t know what went wrong back then... my taste buds were not themselves that day.

• Nose: Sherry, dry dusty old oak, snadalwood, raisins, prunes, dried cranberries, soy sauce, very powerful nose, fills the whole room immediately. Water adds more earthy aspects.
• Mouth: Dry, spices, oak, a bit tannins
• Finish: Roasted oak, sherry, smoke, burnt chocolate, some tannins, spies and pepper, warm

Comment: Generally not that far of from the old tasting notes, but none of that cardboardy plywood aromas that threw me really off last time. Massively flavorful and punchy, maybe a tad too many tannins. A fantastic White Oak Akashi!

88 points