One of the popular posts so far on this blog is the one on Mars Maltage Komagatake 10. A while ago, Dave (of The Whisky Dramalista) who is a whisky friend of mine saw it and mentioned he has the Komagatake 22 yo, so of course I wanted to taste it and compare it head to head with the 10 yo I own, so a samples swap was executed. Thanks Dave!

Unlike the 10 yo which is an integral part of the distillery core offering, the Mars Komagatake 22yo is limited edition of 1359 bottles from a vatting of two American White Oak casks (#1042 and #1039), an ex-sherry cask (#384) and a refill (ex-Scotch) cask (#481).

So how is the 22 yo compares to the 10 yo? Continue reading →

Seems like we’re going on a short world tour of Whisky. Last week I’ve tasted 3 Canadian whiskies and now we move on to Japan.

My parents went on a trip to Japan 2 months ago and I jumped all over this opportunity and with the help of Stefan from Tokyo Whisky Hub I’ve managed to purchase some bottles to be delivered to my parents in Tokyo (Thanks again Stefan!).

I’ll review this week 2 of those bottles and we’ll start with Mars Maltage ‘KOMAGATAKE’ 10 yo.

This whisky is produced in one the least-known single malt producer in japan – Mars distillery. The distillery is located at Miyata village in Nagano. The village resides 800m above sea level, and the water used to produce the whisky passes through granite rock and is high in natural minerals.

I’ve used this whisky as the blind dram I sent out in the #TheDramOGram twitter tasting event. Poor Danny didn’t have a chance 🙂

So how does it taste?

Mars Maltage ‘KOMAGATAKE’ (10 yo, 40% ABV, 4,500 yen – around $35)

Nose: Initial burst alcohol but then becomes gentle, strong fruity notes – pears, peach, apricots, red berries. Vanilla and some oak wood. It’s fruit sweet but also have a strong undercurrent of spices and weak metal note

Palate: Much less fruity and less gentle then the nose – it starts with strong wood, malt and slight vanilla notes, some of it dissipate and spices comes to the front. Barely fruits showing here and that’s a pity.

finish: Medium length. Malt and spices stays for quite a while.

Conclusion: Not a bad single malt. Too bad that’s the lovely fruity notes on the nose didn’t follow through to the palate but overall it’s nice evening dram on spring/autumn day.