Japanese Sub-Tropical Island Whisky! | Mars YA The #01 REVIEW
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- Опубліковано 27 сер 2024
- Kanpai Planet is proud to present one of the world's first reviews of the first blended malt from Mars to be aged on Yakushima Island - a World Heritage sub-tropical natural reserve.
Mars The YA #01 was released at the end of June 2022. It’s a Blended Malt of distillate made at Mars’ Shinshu and Tsunuki Distilleries and aged at their Yakushima Aging Cellar.
Of course, it wasn’t enough to review the whisky! Mac has travelled the 1600km from Tokyo to actually visit the Yakushima Aging Cellar in person, and bring you exclusive footage from this inside of this incredible place.
We're giving you a chance to get in on the ground floor of one of Japan’s most exciting new distilleries, with a primer and review of Mars The YA #01.
Mars Tsunuki 2022 review: • Tsunuki 2022 REVIEW (+...
As per usual, expect lots of historic tidbits and other edutainment in true Kanpai Planet fashion. It's a whisky review like no other!
TEN the Duck appears by permission of skypykv.
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Mac truly is a master blender when it comes to incorporating history, scenic shots and distillery info in his whisky reviews. Always a 10/10 job at presenting his content in an open and interesting manner. Plus we got to see a bit more about Yakushima Aging Cellar, which I was really looking forward to since the last short video we got on it. Might give buying this bottle a pass (for now), but will keep an eye out for it at a bar.
Can’t wait until the Yoichi 10 video when it releases. If only I could be so lucky to get some!
I kept my promise to you! That was in the back of my mind as I was making this, and planned it to give the opportunity to show case more of the building and the island.
great content as always!
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Energetic and enjoyable as usual.
Thanks for yet another interesting review, Mac.
Slàinte mhath / Kanpai
Thank you always for watching, commenting and your support
Another cracking review, cheers Mac
Thanks Ben. Kanpai!
I sound like a broken record but as always, informative and interesting video. The whisky, opposite! Cheers Mac!
Thanks Martin. There's so much other good Mars out there. Kanpai!
Great honest review 🥃👏👏
Thank you for watching and commenting!
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Kanpai! 🥃🥃🥃
Great informative video and love the editing. Keeps me engaged. Need to add some more Japanese whisky to my list. Cheers Mac.
Cheers my friend. Definitely a lot to explore in the world of Japanese Whisky. Kanpai!
Great review Mac! I’d love to see a review regarding Komagatake. Reviews for the yearly releases are few and far between.
There will be a Komagatake coming to the channel this year. You heard it here first!
I love the mars maltage cosmo it’s a fantastic drop!!!! 🥃
It's not bad - a decent world blend and it's actually accessible. Enjoy, and Kanpai!
@@KanpaiPlanet ✌🏻
👍
I could almost smell that warehouse. Wonderful stuff. I really enjoyed the review.
Thank you for watching and commenting Reb!
@@KanpaiPlanet Don't forget, I'm always on the lookout for exclusively Ex-Bourbon or Virgin Oak Japanese Single Malt whisky at a reasonable price. My friend is coming back to Tokyo in September so he can pick me up a bottle. I thought I'd order it online andsl have it delivered to his hotel. Save him shleppin out.
I will bear that in my mind if I come across any. Kanpai!
Hi 👋 to the duck! What a looker!
A cutie for sure! 🦆🦆🦆
Finally was able to get my hands on one of these bottles. One of my favorite bottles thus far. Are you going to do a review on the #02 when it comes out?
Glad you enjoyed it! I wasn't planning on reviewing the YA #02, but we'll see!
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Kanpai! 🥃🥃🥃
Mac .. Absolutely first rate video production, packed with interesting visuals and information ... "It's not bad" unlike a Scottish "NoBad" I'll pass. cheers.
Thanks John. Glad you enjoyed the video. Lots of other great Mars Whiskies to try. Kanpai!
Mac! Great video, I wonder if the intense climate let the wood add more flavour as the whisky ages and if it'll hit that 'sweet spot' sooner than you might expect from other operations.
Definitely an operation to keep an eye on!
I think it will. In fact, I have had a lot of Yakushima Aging and most has been good. The five year I had in the short here was amazing: ua-cam.com/video/UsKgJL2qJrE/v-deo.html
I’ll pop one now to try
Enjoy! Let me know what you think!
Great job, here Mac, as usual, and as a bonus, who else can visit the remote Japanese warehouse where this whisky was matured or finished (not sure I understood if it was fully matured there or finished but it is me) ? No one else...! That said, considering the price it should arrive here (probably around 95 € ?) & your notes, I have to say that this one is not on my wishlist, but maybe the next one from this special ageing experience, who knows...? Again price is clearly an issue for Japanese whisky, and especially new distilleries expressions...(the Komagatake & Tsunuki were almost impossible to reach for me as single malt expressions, while their blended malt was less pricey but still over 140 € mark, and at that price you can get nice Scottish whiskies...but I hope some day to get hold of a bottle of one of each & of a nice Chichibu as well...). KanpaÏ !
Thanks Greg. To address your insightful points:
- It is fully matured on Yakushima, and yes it cost me a lot of money and time to head there. 🤓
- In Europe it should cost about the same as the Tsunuki 2022 Edition.
- I'm hoping to own a nice Chichibu Single Cask one day too!
Kanpai!
@@KanpaiPlanet Thanks for the extra infos, Mac !
🥃🥃🥃
Good review and informative as always. I really liked the butterfly series in the past and was excited, but when I tried the YA I was similarly turned off by the youth. I feel like it’d be a great high ball whisky, but maybe hard to justify that at the price
You've hit the nail on the head. I try not to say it as it's a cliche that every whisky not good neat is a "good highball whisky", but I was very close to saying that in this review!
Hoping to find our for myself in a few weeks, David. Did you also try reducing it? I wonder what it's like in a month or two of being open. I had the same thing with a Yakushima aged Tsunuki single cask but I ended up hunting down a box two months later as it hugely improved.
Once opened it will oxidise (slowly) over time. The more head space in the bottle the more the oxidisation will occur. You want to be starting from a strong base though!
Hi Mac, what happened when you added some water? What I noticed from some Yakushima aged Single Tsunuki's is that initially, they give you that rather dry, oloroso feel on the palete. If you add some water (reduce it to about 50% abv) you should find that mostly gone. The same when you drink 1-2 drams and then let the bottle rest for a month or two. Both Komagatake and Tsunuki often need a lot of time to properly develop. If you wouid return to the Special edition 2020 now, you would most likely score it quite a bit higher (If you initially opened the bottle, of course).
I'll pop a bottle in less than three weeks time and will report :) Hope to be able to catch up with you then, Covid permitting.
I did try it with water. Given it's 52% there wasn't much change. I try to be consistent and take a look at how the whiskies perform neat.
Absolutely agree. You hear it too often and sometimes we have to accept that some releases are less stellar than others. Though I do find, personally, that a lot of Mars releases do get better over time. But that probably has something to do with the current short ageing strategy we're seeing. I can't wait till 2026 and try my first long ageing strategy 15yo mars from Shinshu on Virgin oak. Hope it lives up to the old bottles.
You have hit the nail on the head. Just because a release is not as good as others, it doesn't mean we love the distillery any less overall! I agree that with these 3-4 years you do get some improvement over time, up to a sweet spot. And like you, I am looking forward to so longer aged releases from Mars, hopefully in sufficient quantity so everyone can enjoy them! Kanpai!
@@KanpaiPlanet I've finally had a chance to try this and I have to agree with you. There is an unpleasant bitterness in the finish that ruins it for me. It's not a bad whisky, just not a great one.
Thanks Niels. It is fine, but it didn't wow either of us. Onto the next one!
Ohayo! Can you review "karuizawa club whiskey" by mars distillery, thanks in advance
Hi Bernard. Thanks for the suggestion. If I can get enough useful info from Mars about what's inside Karuizawa Club that might help, but the fact that it's probable only a small amount of that liquid is made in Japan means it's probably not the best fit for Kanpai Planet.
Thank you for making sure I did not waste my money!
You are a true judge of fine spirts
Thank you Peter!
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Your review feels like this is another "rushed" product and it seems like Japan is in too much of a hurry to bring new liquids to market. Do oyu think a few years ageing would smooth out the fire and round out the profile? Young is generally not a good descriptor for Whisky.
Some of the new 3-4 year whiskies have been great Stephen, but that doesn't mean all will be, as you well point out. I would like to see distilleries saving their stock so they can put out larger batches of 6, 7 8 year liquid. I completely understand they are trying to run a business though, but if all 3 year were great then we would never have aged whisky in the first place!
@@KanpaiPlanet The odds on a 3 or 4 year whisky being anything other than a fiery Johnny Red affair are slim...
With the cask and fermentation work that some are capable of doing then you can indeed get some great 3 years IMO - check out Kanosuke for example. But, those casks need to be putting in the hours, as it were, as time is against them!