Fuji 30 Year Old Single Grain Japanese Whisky Review

By Kenrick Thurston-Wilcox

Rating: C

In Fuji Distillery’s 50 year history, the whisky-maker has only employed two master blenders, with Jota Tanaka currently filling the position. Jota has the distinction of recently been admitted into the World Whisky Awards Hall of Fame for his contributions to helping the image and transparency of Japanese Whisky as well as his vast knowledge of blending, having been in the wine and spirits industry since 1988.

Until last year, Japan had not had any set legal standards for the distillation and blending of whisky, instead relying on standards based on reputation, tradition and import requirements. The result was that a Japanese company could, if they chose, import and bottle whiskey from across the globe and calling it Japanese, even though there may be nothing in the bottle that was distilled in Japan. When the boom times came to Japanese whiskey in the 2010s, many took advantage of this giant loophole, pushing out inferior products to make a quick buck and not being transparent, resulting in confusion on what exactly people were buying, and hurting the reputation of Japanese Whiskey in the process.

Not wanting to jeopardize the reputation that the Japanese whisky industry had worked so hard to earn garnered, Jota Tanaka pushed for the industry to adopt regulations that inform the consumer of what, exactly, they were buying. Fuji Whisky exemplifies this push with its 30 Year Old Single Grain Whiskey, which is wholly produced, blended and bottled in Japan. Being able to produce 3 different types of grain whisky on property, this release is a result of their ‘Kettle and Column’ distillation method (which they call a “medium styled Canadian whisky” in-house). This release was bottled at 92 proof, with some of the whiskies in this blend being up to 40 years old, so there is some truly rare and ultra-aged whisky in this release.

The Whisky
Once poured, the liquid is a medium amber color. Unfortunately, the first thing to hit my nose was tannic wood and straight ethanol, overpowering everything else in the glass. After pushing through I found notes of cherry and pine, some red apple and vanilla. I let the liquid sit for 20 minutes after my initial nosing, hoping that the overpowering woody and ethanol notes would dissipate. The extra 20 minutes of air helped reduce the strong ethanol smell, but not by much.

The palate is more fruity with cherry coming back in, followed by orange. The whisky is nice and oily, coating your mouth with a creamy mouthfeel. Unfortunately the ethanol and over-wooded notes are here as well, making the whisky harsh at first. It’s not as overwhelming as the nose, but is still very much prevalent. There also was something that I couldn’t quite place, but was extremely intriguing (butterscotch or toffee were the closest I could come up with but they don’t seem to capture exactly what I tasted). There is not much to say on the finish other then being fruity again, as it was short-lived.

I added a couple drops of water, hoping I could find some more notes that were hiding under the overpowering ones. The water pushed the ethanol and wood out of the way some, giving way to the fruity character of the whiskey. The taste was still woody, but had a slight chocolate character coming through with a still unimpressive finish. Overall, the water helped to tame the overbearing notes, but destroyed any complexity the whiskey had.

The saying that “an older whiskey is a better whisky,” but that is not always the case. Maturation is a dance between time, climate, liquid and wood. Unfortunately, I think this release spent too much time in the casks, resulting in a whisky that tastes overbearingly like wood and ethanol. There is a lot going on underneath, but is buried much too deeply.

The Price
Only 100 bottles of this release can be found in the US with a price tag of $2,999.99 for a 700ml bottle, with the only states it’s available in being California, Illinois, New York, New Jersey, Maryland, Georgia, and Florida.