Shinshu Mars Komagatake - The Revival 2011

The first bottling since the restart of the Mars Komagatake distillery in 2011. Limited to 6000 bottles and bottled at 58% vol. cask strength. Aged for 3 years in bourbon casks.

• Nose: Intensive pear juice, some light smoke and peat, fermented apples, glue and vanilla
• Mouth: Very light without much body, a bit pepper
• Finish: Pepper, glue, a bit sharp, vanilla flavored yogurt, apple, cinnamon

Comment: Definitely a bit young, but a powerful complex nose. This has a lot of potential i think.

80 points

Shinshu Mars Komagatake 10yo Wine Cask Finish

A ten year old wine cask finished malt bottled at 40% vol from the Shinshu Mars distillery. Limited to 500 bottles. Some pretty good info about the distillery can be found on the Whisky Mizuwari Blog.

• Nose: Cedar wood, red wine acidity, the malt hides a bit in the background, a little bit honey and some red berries
• Mouth: Oily, a little bit acidity, woods
• Finish: Smokey, oily, red berries, medium long

Comment: I feel the red wine finish overpowers the malt on the nose and mouth. I don't have too much experience with wine finish, but this one only works okay'ish in my opinion and maybe the malt would haven even been better off without the finish.

81 points