Comments on: Japanese Whisky Makes You Feel Sophisticated, Drunk

By: PhilipMacGregor

PhilipMacGregor — Wed, 03 Apr 2013 17:57:00 +0000

One does not simply use Jack Daniels / Jim bean and sophisticated in the same sentence.
#SingleMalt4Lyfe

On a serious note. Nice job with all these random videos about Japanese culture.

By: Chris Ubik

Chris Ubik — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 19:32:00 +0000

My county stores have discontinued the Suntory Yamazaki 12 and 18 years. I am heartbroken and the surrounding counties do not carry it. I’ve found it in Washington DC, but they are heavily marked up (I have a hard time paying $65 for a bottle that used to cost me $45).

By: Hashi

Hashi — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 16:56:00 +0000

Very educational, thanks for the comment!

By: Hashi

Hashi — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 16:55:00 +0000

Glad you liked it! :D

By: Ian Harris

Ian Harris — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 14:39:00 +0000

I think you’re confusing “blend” and “vat”. A “blended” whisky is where you take a grain whisky (usually made from corn, using continuous distillation) and add small amounts of various malt whiskies (made from barley, using batch distillation) for flavour. A “malt” whisky is entirely made from barley and tastes very different from anything grain-based. A “single malt” whisky is a mixture (please don’t use the word “blend” in this context!) of malt whisky casks from a single distillery, though not necessarily a single year. You are correct that occasionally people have been known to mix together malt whisky from different distilleries. This is called a “vatted malt”. It is relatively rare, but it is still very much a malt whisky, and still tastes completely different from any blend. Your preferred option seems to be a “single cask” whisky. This allows the character (good or bad!) of an individual cask to shine through, but provides the bottler with little scope for achieving any consistency from one year to the next. In my experience, it’s a bit of a gamble… you always pay a higher price, but are occasionally rewarded with something unique.

If you prefer single cask and sneer at single malt, then fine. But comparing single malt with blended whisky is like comparing Scotch and Bourbon. They’re different drinks, made from different grains, using different distillation processes!

By: Ian Harris

Ian Harris — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 14:08:00 +0000

The current rule-of-thumb seems to be that spirits distilled in the traditional Scottish manner call themselves whisky, whereas those using other processes use whiskey. So you have Scottish, English, Welsh, Swedish and Japanese whisky, but Irish and American whiskey. As always there are exceptions… eg the Scottish Auchentoshan is a sweet, triple-distilled affair, but still calls itself whisky, whereas the Irish Redbreast is double-distilled and peated, and therefore tastes much more like Scotch, but still calls itself whiskey.