Shizuoka United S
Japanese Single Malt Whisky | 50.5% ABV
Score: 7/10
Very Good Indeed.
TL;DR
Very impressive, you *almost* get your money’s worth
Who’s Buying?
Ok, first things first: I am anything but an expert on Japanese whisky, and if you were to browse the Dramface back catalogue it’s fair to assume none of us are.
With 1,600+ reviews under our belt, a very meagre (abysmal, even) 13 of those are dedicated to Japanese whisky. That’s less than 1% and frankly I think that’s a bit shocking. Time for some context behind those numbers.
First and foremost, there’s no ‘plan’ as to what gets reviewed; there are no guidelines, let alone instructions. Apart from an occasional and rare freebie, what you read about is the stuff we go out and buy for ourselves. And because we’re an opinionated bunch here, we like to share our thoughts with whoever might be interested. So is it true that the logical conclusion to take from this is that we (i.e. team Dramface) don’t really care about Japanese whisky?
That's probably a bit harsh. It’s not that we don’t ‘care’, it’s just that there’s so much stuff out there, mostly single malt Scotch, to keep us occupied and engaged. Furthermore, and this really needs to be addressed, there is an awful lot of excellent whisky out there, and with the current glut of whisky on the market, an awful lot of that excellent whisky is, after a concerning peak a few years ago, finally available again at very reasonable prices.
And this, I feel, is where Japanese whisky is starting to struggle. Despite (or is it ‘because of’?) the Japanese whisky renaissance in recent years, seeing dozens of new producers coming to fruition, the reality is simply that prices remain high. Possibly it’s less of an issue in their domestic market (and with over 120 million inhabitants, it’s not exactly a small domestic market either), but - and I want to stress that I’m speaking from a personal perspective here - any possible enthusiasm I might have felt when seeing and hearing about this whole new wave of Japanese distilleries releasing, according to people who know, exciting and excellent whiskies, was quickly tempered when learning about the price tag.
Review
Shizuoka United S, Summer 2023 release,
made with direct-fire pot stills and an ex-Karuizawa pot still, 50cl bottle, 50.5% ABV
£70 paid on auction
As these things go, Shizuoka distillery ‘fits the bill’ of the new wave of Japanese distilleries nicely.
Founded in 2016 and operational since February of 2017, they are very much a ‘new ‘distillery. Albeit one with an ace up their sleeves in terms of ‘pedigree’. It’s probably common knowledge, as they seldom let an opportunity go begging to make a song and dance about the fact that one of their stills was salvaged/recovered from the legendary Karuizawa distillery. In short: Karuizawa is to Japanese whisky what Roseisle, Brora or Port Ellen were to Scotch when they were mothballed and whatever stock they have left tends to be sold for quite astronomic prices.
So Shizuoka has this physical and historical connection with one of the absolute legends of Japanese whisky and, very clever in my opinion, has been working with that. Apart from the Karuizawa still, they also have two direct-fire pots stills from Forsyths. The way they use that, to their benefit, is by releasing alternatively a batch of single malt made from the Karuizawa still (labelled ‘K’), one from the direct fire stills (labelled ‘W’ from wood fired) and a batch using spirit coming from both the stills, labelled ‘United S’.
The go-to retail price for one of these tends to be north of €100/£95/$125 - for a 50 cl bottle. And it was basically all the reasoning I needed to park this in the ‘too bad, would love to try, but not at that price’ filing cabinet of my brain.
It would have stayed there if it weren’t for dumb luck and sheer coincidence.
About a month ago, I scrolled through the catalogue of my go to auction site and saw this bottle of the United S summer 2023 was up for auction. More than that, it was put up there by a seller located less than an hour from where I live and he checked the ‘pick up from seller’ option. With just about an hour to go, I put in a bid, expecting to be outbid minutes before the deadline (as these things often go).
Lo and behold, a while later I received the e-mail confirming mine was the winning bid. For €70 the bottle was mine (and with a little help from a friend it literally fell into my lap without me even having to go and pick it up – rest assured, a sample of this will be shared with the party concerned). Now €70 (+ roughly an extra tenner for the auction costs) I still don’t think of as cheap for a 50 cl bottle of four year old-ish whisky, but at least I can justify purchasing it for this price.
Score: 7/10
Very Good Indeed.
TL;DR
Very impressive, you *almost* get your money’s worth
Nose
Wow! An absolute fruit basket! Melon, peach, banana, mango, conference pears, pear drops, sweet apples… add to that a generous dose of vanilla, granulated sugar and demerara sugar. Sweet licorice and a hint of candy and spices (not exactly like cola cubes, but in that vicinity). Sweetness galore, in the best of ways!
Palate
More sweetness and spices! A lovely mixture of sweet and dry spices like nutmeg, clove and gentle ginger, intertwined with sweet fruit notes from banana (foam), pear drops, sweet apples, mango, guava and a sweet grainy element reminding me of shortbread and ginger bread cookies.
A quite dense, slightly viscous texture driven by vanilla oil and vanilla sticks and closing the deal there’s this absolute pleasant touch of medium wood char, adding a suggestion of wood smoke. What makes it even more impressive, is the balance they‘ve managed to establish here. Everything clicks, everything sits exactly right. If anything, this is super moreish.
The Dregs
Powerful and youthful, and it works like a charm. A very busy little malt, and surprisingly complex. Complex may not be the right word, I think ‘layered’ suits it better as complexity may suggest you’re set to work to properly assess and enjoy this one. Which is not the case as this is just super easy drinking, and it reveals all it has to offer (which is a lot) layer by layer, going super easy on you as you sip along. It’s as if the good people at Shizuoka picked up the gauntlet to try and pack as much flavour as possible into the bottle and succeeded. Brilliantly. They went all-out to prove a point.
I am so happy to have this in my cabinet. So much so, I’ll just about pardon the 50cl presentation and the three-digit price tag that comes with it. That said, even at about €80 this is stretching the limits of what passes as ‘acceptable’ in my book. So I’m very much ‘in dubio’ about this one.
On the one hand there’s no denying just what a wonderful whisky we have going here. On the other hand, there’s the price tag. So I’m afraid my end note will be utterly useless and absolutely rubbish: try it (no, in fact: jump on it) if the opportunity presents itself, but don’t overpay in order to do so. I’ll do what we Belgians do best: compromise. This is a 7 hovering towards an 8, but I’ll need to take the price point into consideration.
Score: 7/10
Tried this? Share your thoughts in the comments below. EA
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