As you may remember, WhiskyNotes celebrates an anniversary on the 7th of December. As it falls on a Saturday, we decided to celebrate a day early. Sixteen years of reviews already. A Karuizawa should be appropriate.
Earlier this year The Whisky Exchange introduced The Cabinet, a digital marketplace in which they offer exceptional and unique spirits. It’s a blockchain-enabled project so you’re buying a digital certificate of ownership. They accept credit cards or cryptocurrency.
The bottles are physically stored in TWE’s secured and insured facility. They can also ship it, should you want to take physical ownership of the bottle. I’m quite traditional about these things, so I’d want to look at my bottle and treasure it, but then again I don’t have that kind of money.
The whiskies on offer are impressive, starting with a 50-year-old Glenlivet – only 12 bottles! Today we’re celebrating with a Karuizawa 50 Year Old.
Karuizawa 1965 + 1972
The first component of this whisky is Karuizawa 1965 from sherry cask #3037, which hit the market in several batches as a 50-year-old. A small amount was kept back and held in glass. This was now married with a Karuizawa 1972 matured in red wine casks (like this other 1972) that were recoopered in 2012. Both components have been aged for 50 years. After painstaking trials (one of which already reached me some time ago) they settled on a ratio of 80% 1965 and 20% 1972. This combination rested in glass for a further two years.
Only 50 bottles exist, each with a unique engraving of an oriental motif or scene. All of them are on the project website. Each box repeats the motif, and a complentary book explains the philosophy behind the whisky.
Time to fill the only appropriate glass for this kind of whisky, the blender’s glass.
Karuizawa 50 yo – Marriage 1965 & 1972 (54,8%, The Whisky Exchange ‘Cabinet’ 2024, 50 btl.)
Nose: it doesn’t scream Karuizawa right away – at first you could be tricked into thinking this was a very old cognac. Dried apricots, whiffs of fig syrup but also mango underneath. Then a little cinnamon and heather honey appears, along with mild gingery notes. Furniture polish, always nice. Blood oranges, marmalade and Spanish membrillo. Hints of oriental pastry in the background, along with some old herbal tea leaves, eucalyptus and subtle hints of cigar boxes.
Mouth: quite powerful – this ain’t cognac! There’s black peppercorn and even hints of rye spice. Then herbal honey and herbal tea, with mint and eucalyptus, leading to black tea and cigar leaves after a while. Mid-palate a burst of fresher fruits appears, with more blood orange and marmalade, hints of kumquat, mango and grapefruit (including peels). Plenty of precious, oriental wood as well, cedar but also smoky sandalwood. Quite earthy, but with refreshing resinous touches and liquorice.
Finish: long and dark, on black tea and bitter chocolate, with some charred echoes, menthol, a hoppy note and a bit of incense.
So here’s a Karuizawa that displays the elegance and refinement of very old cognac and very old Scotch. The sherry is easy to notice (as it should in a good Karuizawa imho) but it has more layers and refinements than some of the (also glorious) sherry bombs we had before. It is more in the style of these ancient Glen Grants from Gordon & MacPhail, for instance. However, on the palate the oriental, dark profile of the distillery prevails, with a surprising hint of bright exotic fruits.
I keep wondering how much space remains for such projects in the current whisky market, but the whisky itself is certainly a piece of liquid history. At € 44,000 ex VAT per (50cl) bottle, I’m sure there’s some budget left to have it delivered to your home, where it can be treasured and admired. Maybe even… savoured?