Komagatake Single Malt 2021 Limited Edition

Try at a bar first – but if you like pure Japanese whisky this will be right up your alley

DISTILLERY	Mars Shinshu distillery
REGION	Nagano, Japan
AGE	NAS (At least 3 Years)
STRENGTH	48% ABV (96 Proof)
MASHBILL	100% Malted Barley
MSRP	$120 (Mostly found at 180 -200 range)

---

GLANCE

Clear with medium intensity and lemon/gold hue

NOSE

Clean with medium to pronounced intensity. Honey, sweet oat, savory note (reminded me of ramen broth), oak, musty lychee and sherry and sun dried mango. Floral and light fruit forward.

PALATE

Crisp Fuji apple with pops of pomegranate and grape, sweet oak and cereal notes – soft flavors easy sipper – more flavors towards the back end -honey drizzled on granola – mouth filling with medium intensity 

FINISH

Short to medium in length and somewhat complex – sun dried mango, hints of lychee and sweet oak, vanilla 

CLOSING REMARKS

Japanese whisky is getting very popular these days and to no surprise now we have multiple limited bottle offerings coming from the region. This one comes from Hombo Shuzo company (who have been distilling for over 100 years) and who own Mars Shinshu distillery. This was made using worm tubs (a rarity for single malts) and aged for at least 3 years but it’s NAS. It’s aged in a combination ex-bourbon and ex-sherry American oak. The Komagatake name comes from where this malt was aged at – The Shinshu distillery seats 800 meters below Mt. Komagatake. Overall an enjoyable dram. Soft, delicate flavors that come out with all their strength. Quite the easy sipper, being almost 50% ABV. I say this because my fiancé who barely drinks whiskey, surprised me during our picnic and said “I will take some”. And she found it as an easy sipper! Now the price point. No way in any universe is this worth $200 – 215 . $100 is more closer to the sweet spot. Going off the flavor, the single malts from Nikka get the job done well for below the  $100. But even those are well inflated in price. Some real nice flavors here but in my opinion the price point can make it hard to justify this NAS product. In any case it was fun tasting this. Cheers!

---