Mars : Tsunuki 8 Year Old Yakushima Aging Peated Sherry Puncheon 2017

Characteristics and Tasting Tips for Mars Tsunuki 8 Years Old Yakushima Aging Peated Sherry Puncheon 2017

Tasting

Nose

The nose is rich and deep. The first nose combines oily peat, soot and rancio (brandied cherry, mango) with dark chocolate and notes of wax polish (varnish, shoe polish). With aeration, it becomes maltier and opens onto spicy nuances of ginger and clove, along with a fermentative touch of porridge. A superb nose.

Palate

The palate is refined and full-bodied. It opens with medicinal notes (tincture of iodine, methylene blue), empyreumatic notes (burnt wood) and animal notes (bacon). It evolves towards flavours of apricot, citrus (orange) and exotic fruits (mango, persimmon, guava). The mid-palate, saline and mouthwatering, leaves milky, creamy nuances of almond and pecan. The finish, long and concentrated, evokes the smoke of a powerful Havana cigar. It blends mango and persimmon, germinating barley, earthy, root-like notes of gentian, and a medicinal touch of mustard seed. On the retronasal, dandelion, daffodil and warm tarmac emerge.

Pairings and Tasting Occasions

This whisky lends itself to contemplative sipping, late in the evening as a digestif. It is best savoured slowly, accompanied if desired by a square of dark chocolate or a few nuts. Its high strength invites the addition of a few drops of water to open up the aromatic palette. It is preferable to enjoy it neat or with a measured splash of water rather than on ice.

Mixology

A rare and complex bottling, this exceptional single malt is best enjoyed without artifice.

Other Characteristics

This Japanese single malt is heavily peated, with 50 ppm of phenols. It was aged in a sherry puncheon cask and bottled at 57.7% ABV in a 0.70 L bottle, presented in a gift box. It belongs to La Maison du Whisky's "The Anthologists" series.

An Intensely Peated Japanese Whisky from Mars, Between Yakushima and Andalusia

Mars, a Japanese Whisky Serving a Plural Terroir

Mars is the Japanese whisky brand of Hombo Shuzo, a family-owned house founded in 1872 in Tsunuki, in Kagoshima Prefecture. Hombo Shuzo, the brand's current owner, first worked in agricultural processing, then in shōchū from 1909. It obtained a whisky licence in 1949. Today it operates two malt distilleries: Mars Komagatake, at an altitude of 798 metres in the Central Alps, reopened in 2011, and Mars Tsunuki, established in 2016 on the house's historic site. To these is added the Mars Yakushima Aging Cellar, an ageing warehouse opened the same year on the island of Yakushima. This strategy, summed up by the phrase "two distilleries, three ageing warehouses", favours the exploration of varied styles over a single house style.

A Peated 8-Year-Old Tsunuki, Matured on the Island of Yakushima

The Tsunuki 8 Years Old Yakushima Aging Peated Sherry Puncheon 2017 is a single malt whisky, distilled at Tsunuki in 2017 from a heavily peated malt (50 ppm of phenols). From its very first season, the distillery explored several peat levels, up to 50 ppm.

The "Yakushima Aging" mention indicates that it was matured on the island of Yakushima, in a sherry puncheon cask. The volcanic island, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, experiences abundant rainfall and sea spray. This environment contrasts sharply with those of Komagatake and Tsunuki.

Bottled at 57.7% ABV by the official bottler, this Tsunuki 8 Years Old is offered in a 0.70 L bottle, presented in a gift box. Its palate unfolds in interlinked peated, fruity and malty sequences, and travels between southern Japan and Andalusia.