Shinshu Mars Komagatake Cask 1789 (bottled 2020) 1st fill Bourbon 2014 700ml

Whiskymaker's note:
Profile: the concentrated first nose is exotic (pineapple), vanilla, herbaceous (hay bale) and spicy (nutmeg). Allowed to breathe, vanilla becomes more present and tiger balm enters the mix. It becomes increasingly fruity (pear, apple) and honeyed (acacia). The creamy attack is malty and delicately liquorice. Strong spices (nutmeg) and sweet spices (cumin) shower the taste buds. The palate is reminiscent of pancake. The long finish is deliciously honeyed (lavender) and malty. The fruits found on the nose return in force.

Located between Japan’s soaring Southern Alps and the towering Central Alps, at just over 2,600 feet, Mars Shinshu is Japan’s highest whisky distillery. The Hombo family have been distilling for more than a century and added whisky to their repertoire in 1949. At that time the distillery was located in the Tsunuki region of Kagoshima Prefecture on the southern-most island of Kyushu.
Until 1984, it was the southernmost whisky made in Japan, which ended when the Hombo clan moved the distillery to the idyllic alpine setting of Miyada village in southern Nagano Prefecture, Central Japan. They chose this site for its cool temperature, which slowed maturation, and the plentiful soft granite filtered snowmelt fed aquifers. A beautiful choice.
In 2016, Hombo Shuzo reopened and introduced new pot stills to their first distillery location in Kagoshima now known as the Mars Tsunuki Distillery, once again Japan’s southernmost distillery.They also built an aging facility on a tiny island known as Yakushima, a National World Heritage site, where they now age spirits from both Shinshu and Tsunuki distilleries.