Adelphi: Akkeshi: 3 Year: Cask 1011 (Japanese Single Malt Whisky: 3 Year: 57.8% ABV)
Visual: Very pale grain color. Fast thick streaks come from the spirit.
Nose: Light salt. Alcohol strength. Soot and cigarette ash. Peat smoke. Moss. Smoked kippers. Slight vanilla. Lightly medicinal. Burnt marshmallow. Water adds toasted teacakes.
Body: Toffee. Alcohol strength. Burnt beef. Caramel. Moss. Peaty. Malt chocolate. Vanilla. Dry smoke. Smoked beef. Strawberry crème. Water adds golden syrup. Smoked bacon. More moss. Cherries.
Finish: Burnt marshmallow. Mossy. Soot. Mild lime cordial. Alcohol tingle. Vanilla. Water adds smoked bacon and sweet toffee syrup.
Conclusion: Ok, there is no way a 50% plus abv, 3 year old whisky should be this smooth. Ok, it does have a noticeable alcohol weight, warmth and a prickle, but compared to what you would expect from a dram like this? This is silk smooth by that measure. I mean apart from the peat natch, this is a freaking peat bomb.
While it has a slight salt and medicinal style that calls to having slight Islay influence that is definitely not the main point – but more on that later. But on the peat, yeah this is peaty, definitely emphasises by its youth so there has not been time for the peat to be lost. There is kind of kippers in the aroma but more into smoked meat in the body, going from more beef like neat, into smoked bacon with water, and with ash notes just lying around that. So, yeah, big peat, as I say really taking advantage if its youth to just punch out all the smokey strengths.
Like, if you want a comparison for intensity this feels like a somehow smoother despite being younger take on Ardbegs Wee Beastie for peat punch (Though this is significantly more expensive), offset slightly by vanilla notes from its time in the bourbon. A simple but effective style.
Water just mixes this all up. SO MUCH!
Like, the peat is still intense and the vanilla/toffee/etc sweet notes take on a watered down golden syrup style around the edges but more importantly the bright fruity notes come out, and not only the green fruit notes I would expect from a young whisky like this.
There are hints of strawberry and cherry, subtle but present. Is this the sign of the distillery character under the peat? Is my mind making shit up to compensate for the range of intensities it has just been hit by? No idea, but whatever the reason it made for delicious spirit.
When I first tried this a few weeks back I was viewing it as an excellent peat bomb, fantastic for its age, but, you know what you can get better for much cheaper. For example the aforementioned Wee Beastie. I was going to say only get this if you love trying new Japanese whiskies as you know that unfortunately, like most Japanese distilleries, new releases from this Distillery are just going to go up and up in price from here. So, while this is a great example of their whisky, generally I would recommend a cheaper dram.
Now, after it has had some time to air and I have returned to it a few times… well it is still mostly that, but the quality of the spirit, combined with that huge peat, it may just be worth the marked up price for such a young whisky. Maybe. Not sure but maybe. It is very good.
Background: Ohh this is exciting. While I was in a cool hotel whisky bar in Nikko, one of my fellow travels tried a dram of Akkeshi’s blended whisky and said it was very nice – at the time I presumed them to be the name of a blender and didn’t realize they were a distillery turning out their own single malts as well. So then this turned up at Independent Spirit I was very interested. A heavily peated expression, from Adelphi who tend to be a phenomenal independent bottler and at decent prices. Now about that price, despite this being three years old it was around the hundred pounds mark, which is a heck of a lot for a three year old whisky, even a cask strength one like this, however I’ve seen how much darn Japanese whiskies like Chichibu end up going for, with their new 10 year old being over a thousand pounds, so I figured this may be my only chance to try before it went out of my price range so decided to grab. On that age, this was distilled 2018 and bottled in 2023, yet is three years old? At best guess this spent some time traveling between Japan and UK in a contained that did not count for aging which is why it is 3 year old despite that obviously not 3 year range of dates. One of only 253 bottles from cask 1011 which was a first fill bourbon barrel. Whew that is a lot of text, anything else? Oh yeah for a young peaty dram like this I wanted big music so went with Napalm Death: Apex Predator, Easy Meat.
