Prices
Prices and stock come from each retailer's website. Check with the store before you buy.
More from this distillery: All Shinobu whiskies and prices
About
What it is
A blended whisky finished in mizunara, Japanese oak, from the Shinobu brand out of Niigata. Bottled at 43%, roughly half malt and half grain, no colouring added. Shinobu means forbearance, and the brand leans on the samurai association fairly hard.
Where it comes from
Shin Group's own product page says it plainly: the whisky is made by selecting stock from distilleries around the world, first matured in ex-sherry and ex-bourbon casks, then finished in mizunara in Japan. That means it doesn't meet the Japan Spirits and Liqueurs Makers Association standard, which requires distillation in Japan.
Context helps here. The Shinobu Distillery in Niigata only received its whisky licence around 2017 and was still being built when these blends launched, so there was nothing of its own to bottle. Master blender Ken Usami built a world whisky finished in Japanese oak instead, which is a legitimate approach as long as nobody pretends otherwise. The sources aren't named.
How it's made
Niigata sits on the Sea of Japan and is known for snow, rice and sake, with the soft water that comes with all three. The mizunara finish is doing the identity work: Japanese oak gives sandalwood, incense and coconut notes that nothing else does, and a short finish in it is enough to reshape a blend. Usami came to whisky from brewing, having run one of Japan's first bottle-conditioned beer operations.
What to expect
Light and pale, almost watery in the glass. Roasted nuts, pear and honeysuckle, then black pepper and clove with citrus and baked apple behind, finishing smooth. Easy rather than deep.
How it compares
Against Shinobu Pure Malt, the all-malt version of the same idea, that one is richer. Against The Shin range, also Shin Group, you're looking at the same approach under a different name. Against Amahagan or Hatozaki, same imported malt story, different finish.
