Karuizawa 1982 27 Years Old Geisha label Cask 2748 56.1% 1982

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Serge Valentin (91)

This one almost fetched gold at the MM Awards 2009 (high silver). Colour: amber. Nose: a different planet here, this more sumptuous and wonderfully balanced, with many ‘candied’ aromas, nougat, café latte, raspberry liqueur, oranges, Nutella (not kidding), then old rancio, walnuts… Fantastic, even at such high strength. With water: wow! Earth and mint, then various fresh mushrooms (no mouldiness). Even truffles (but not these, err, sulphury notes that sometimes come with truffles). Mouth (neat): it’s a tad less rounded now, and probably more vinous than on the nose, but the earthiness is superb, as well as all the notes of herbs and teas. Mint, hawthorn, lemon balm… All that coated with a sauce made out of prunes and oranges.
With water: more oak but it’s a flavourful oak, adding many spicy and vegetal notes that aren’t so common in whisky. Savory? Mother-of-thyme? Finish: long, oak-coated thus maybe a tad dry-as-dust but it actually works greatly, with quite some mint and even a little eucalyptus counterbalancing the whole in the aftertaste. Comments: a rich, mature yet restless dram. I scored it 91 points at the MM Awards so I won’t change the rating, but I might have gone a tad higher…

Words of Whisky (90)