The crew got together to split our round 5 samples and we went ahead and did a marathon of 10 reviews while we were at it. Sean sends his regrets. I'll keep the intros short for these if that's OK :)
Suntory Whisky Toki, 43% ABV, Japanese Blend, $60 CAD.
We sniff around:
Trevor starts us off with vinegar. Apple cider vinegar.
Simon agrees, butterscotch, apples, vinegar. It's got a sauvignon blanc kind of things going on.
Scott goes for a little lemon. Not sure about the white wine.
We cheers.
Simon says it tastes almost like rice whisky. Little caramel, little citrus, orange rind. Trevor can get that riciness.
Scott doesn't know if he tasted anything... Kyle is also in that camp.
After a few minutes Scott can pull some of those lemon notes, sweet, very light. Little bitter.
Reviews: Kyle's bottle so he starts us off. Doesn't get a ton on the nose or the palate. It's easy drinking. Not sure that he'd get it again, a little too light for him, but what comes through is decent. 70. Scott goes 67. It's good for a summer drink, there might be a place for this and he's not ruling out getting a bottle to sip on ice on a hot day. Simon matches the 70. It's decent, it's light, we reviewed something similar recently called Bastille, a French blend, and that was similarly light and a bit better, this is a little off somehow, the vinegary notes aren't a selling point for him. For Trevor, it gets a bit better with time but he can't say it's something he wants to go back to. He goes 61. He wouldn't push someone in this direction. We average out to 67.
Overall: You can probably skip this. It's not bad but not a ton of flavor here. It's light, it would make a good highball with something carbonated in the summer. But sadly, for a solid Japanese whisky, you're going to have to pull out the big bucks.
Cheers!
The S&P Crew
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