Kanosuke Double Distillery Japanese Whisky Review
By Richard Thomas
Rating: B+
(Credit: Kanosuke Distillery)
Although the world’s whisky boom seems to be coming to an end, it lasted long enough to finally bring Japanese whisky into the spotlight and spawn an expansion of their whisky-making industry. Although growth in Japan was not nearly as explosive as in, say, Ireland, it saw more new distillery construction than had been the case for decades. One such newcomer is Kanosuke.
I’ve previously discussed Kanosuke Distillery and its features as a malt whisky-making plant in the review of the Kanosuke Single Malt, but that isn’t the only distillery owned by the company. Any company following the Scotch model of production and business, as everyone in Japan more or less does, needs to produce a blended whisky, which is to say a blend of grain and malt whiskies. So, the Komasa family that owns Kanosuke also owns a grain whisky distillery, Hioki.
Kanosuke Double Distillery Whisky is indeed a blend, but not a blend with grain whisky. That more traditional grain-malt blend has yet to arrive. Instead, Hioki also makes an Irish-style pot still whisky, made with malted and unmalted barley in a pot still. That is what was brought into to batch with the Kanosuke malt. The result was left unfiltered and bottled at 53% ABV.
The Whisky
The pour in my Glencairn has a deep golden coloring, verging on the golden brown one more often used to describe fried potatoes than something liquid. Still, it’s not quite dark or red enough to get to copper.
The nose is a rich one, with a fruity base bringing together cantaloupe, lemon zest and fresh apricot, this accented by slivers of spicy oak and a solid note of vanilla. On the palate, the whisky is heavy and flavorful. Holding center stage is creamy vanilla coupled to a fruit cocktail of canned peaches and pears, with those slivers of spicy wood bringing things into some balance with wood tannin, cinnamon and clove. The finish runs long, woody and spicy.
The Price
Online retailers have this item listed anywhere from $95 to $135.
