Review: Kaiyō Whisky

Key Details

• Whiskey Name: Kaiyō
• Distillery: N/A
• ABV: 43%/86 proof
• Age: NAS
• Type: UnChill Filtered Whisky from Japan
• Website: https://kaiyowhisky.com/
• Price: £75 Click for link to Amazon

Very interesting whiskey here from Kaiyō. They are based in Japan and this whiskey is double-distilled, 100% malt whisky, but it’s not single malt. From what I gather, they haven’t distilled their own liquid yet but buy barrels that have been ‘Tea-spooned’ and age it themselves. What is Tea-spooning? Tea-spooning is done to prevent the purchaser of a barrel from claiming it is 100% from a certain source. They usually take a large barrel of whiskey and add in a small amount from a different distillery to achieve this tea-spooned ‘blend’. The whiskey itself is actually bought unaged, in what’s called ‘white-dog’ or ‘new-make’ and then aged to maturity by Kaiyō. Interestingly, Kaiyō in Japanese means ocean, and the whiskey will spend up to 3 months aging on the ocean. This has become a bit of a niche in recent times with the moving around, air pressure and temperature changes on board the boat it gives a different finish to the whiskey. Kaiyō deliberately doesn’t call it Japanese whisky, since it isn’t aged entirely in Japan.

Onto the real pull of this whiskey: The Mizunara Oak. Most distilleries won’t use new woods without extensive research; it’s no accident that the majority of whiskey is aged in American Oak (even sherry cask are generally American Oak!). So the question is, how does the Mizunara Oak affect the aging and taste of the whiskey? Well, first, a Mizunara tree will have to be 200 years old to be used as a cask so that’s quite a long time to plan your supply of Mizunara Trees. The wood is also a lot more porous than American and European Oak meaning casks are prone to leaks. Master Blender Jeff Karlovitch said “I don’t think I have a mizunara barrel that doesn’t leak.” He says Kaiyō barrels are twice as thick as a standard oak barrel yet they lose double the amount of whiskey each year to the angel’s share, through evaporation and leaks! That’s a lot of whiskey! The Mizunara oak was also found to give less than desirable tasting notes to the whiskey in the short term and experts believe it takes well over a decade of aging to impart the unique taste of Mizunara Oak.

Nose (15/33)

On approaching this it was a very strange nose. I could smell some flouriness and coriander(cilantro) on the front, with a lingering citrus smell covered by some dusty sandalwood notes. You could tell this was a young whiskey with the harsh smell of alcohol shining through.

Taste (23/34)

Wow. I did not expect this from the nose. The taste is super sweet, almost like simple syrup. There’s a really strong taste of orange peel in the background and I can’t help but feel like this would make a perfect Old Fashioned! It could almost drink like an old fashioned out of the bottle, and being 43% thats dangerous.

Finish (25/33)

Short and sweet. Doesn’t hang around with you too much, it leaves a slight bit of wood spice in the back of your throat and the rest of your mouth feels like some oily syrupyness is after sloshing around.

Score

63/100

Wasn’t sold on the whiskey from the nose, but the taste and finish won it over for me. I hope to try some more of the Kaiyō and Mizunara Oak expressions. There are definitely some cool flavours to explore there and they’ll only become more prominent with age and experience of the wood.

Please let me know on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter if you’ve tried it and agree or disagree and share your notes.