Critic tasting notes:
"Boosting the ABV gives this more versatility for whisky-based cocktails, but neat, there are aromas of honey, barley, exotic woods, ripening pear, box-fresh sneakers, citrus, and fruity acids, with the spices turned down low. A convoluted profile winds through vanilla, sugar cubes, and honey fudge, followed by pear, apricot, and a gentle crescendo of spice, before hitting a plateau of honey, breakfast cereal, nougat, and white chocolate to finish. Best Value" - 90/100, Whisky Advocate
Top Whiskies of 2020 #19 •This new, higher proof Iwai (pronounced EE-why) was designed for cocktails; however, it’s supple and more than capable as a neat sipper too, with pleasing aromas of honey, ripening pear, barley, exotic woods, and citrus. The palate of honey sweetness, sugar cubes, vanilla, pear, apricot, and spice bows out with honey, breakfast cereal, nougat, and white chocolate. It’s a delicious and unusual whisky from Japan, less aligned with the country’s scotch-like tradition of malts and blends and more similar to bourbon, being made mostly from corn. — Jonny McCormick
Distilled from a high corn mash of 75% corn, and 25% barley aged in ex-Bourbon casks.
Mars Shinshu is Japan's highest whisky distillery, at 798 meters — just over 2,600 feet — nestled between Japan’s Southern and Central Alps. Mars Shinshu is owned by the Hombo family, who have been in the business of distillation for over a century.
Whisky became a part of the Mars Shinshu production line up in 1949. In 1984, Shinshu decided to move their southernmost Kyushu distillery to the picturesque alpine Miyada village, where the high altitude and cool climate make for suitable conditions for whisky-making. The whisky is produced from waters that pass through granite rock, this water is high in natural minerals.
This whisky is named after Kiichiro Iwai, known as "The Silent Pioneer of Japan Whisky," and the former mentor of Masataka Taketsuru, the founder of Nikka and Suntory Whisky. Iwai sent Taketsuru to Scotland to learn the art of whisky-making. Taketsuru returned to Japan, presenting a whisky-making report — the Taketsuru Notes — to Iwai. Taketsuru was the first Japanese to learn the art of whisky-making.
Mars Shinshu’s whiskies continue to be some of the most inexpensive Japanese whiskies on the market, and they are full of high-quality character and complex flavor. Iwai Tradition is a blended whisky, comprised of both single malts, grains, and blended whiskies.
