You are browsing the archive for Suntory Archives - Miss Whisky.

Japanese Spirit at Mizuwari

March 18, 2013 in Reviews

I love me a good drinking den. And, let’s be honest, London is pretty full of top-end joints to hunker down of an eve and do just that – drink. I have no doubt many other cities in this fine country have much to offer too, of course, but my experience is with the capital and, thus far, I can’t complain.

One of the newest whisky spots on the block is Mizuwari – a Japanese themed bar on Old Compton Street in the downstairs section of Izakaya restaurant, Bincho, that’s filled with cocktails and drams galore.

As a big fan of Japanese whisky, the news of its opening was thrilling to my ears. Unfortunately, many other people felt the same so on opening night the small space was so rammed that getting a good look at its interiors or experiencing it in full was not possible.

Cocktail at BinchoI have since had the chance to go back and can say that it is a place I will be adding to my “Soho bars of best repute” list.

The bar is what one might call intimate – petite round tables and shared benches with individual lamps that can be dimmed dot the dark-wood floored and mahogany walled room, while behind the bar are rows of Japanese whisky.

The place was developed in partnership with Suntory, so all of the cocktails on the list feature whiskies from the company’s brands (think: Hakushu, Hibiki and Yamazaki).

However, when it comes to single drams, the menu is much more extensive and includes more than a dozen options from the Nikka range, various Ichiro’s Malts and a jaw-dropping selection of Karuizawas, which given their rarity and the fact this is a central London bar, are really rather reasonably priced (from £8.50-£12).

Locked cage at BinchoWhat I like about the space is that it will hopefully appeal to a wide range of drinker – not just the seasoned whisky lover. I could easily imagine bringing my non-whisky drinking girlfriends and winning them over with the feisty Rissun cocktail (Yamazaki 12, plum liqueur and ginger) or the silky smooth Seimei (Hibiki 12, maraschino liqueur, absinthe and lemon zest).

If you want to get fully into the spirit of Japanese tradition, then you can also purchase a bottle of whisky (such as the Yamazaki 12) to store in a locked cage behind the bar, as is done in drinking dens in the east. Your name will be left on it and you can access it any time you’re in the area. Okay – it’s a bit of a mark-up from shop price (£88 instead of £43 for the Yamazaki 12) but if you’re going out frequently in the area, it makes a good investment compared to buying individual drams each time.

Now, I won’t pretend this place is cheap. It’s not. A cocktail will hit your wallet for around £10 minimum but as a special treat it is well worthwhile. And, if you come on a Monday, the fabulous restaurant upstairs features all of its skewers of charcoal grilled meat for £1 each, so you can make a night of it for a fairly reasonable price.

In short, I’m hoping this will help raise the profile once more for the wonderful drink that is Japanese whisky. If you’ve not had the chance to try many yet and are in London, this will surely be the new place to go.

Photos provided by the team behind Mizuwari.

For more details, visit: bincho.co.uk/whisky-joint

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
No Comments »

Cocktails in the afternoon

July 4, 2012 in Uncategorized

It’s always interesting to meet people one has only spoken to before in the Twittersphere – a space replete with whisky lovers.

And so it was last Friday when I had the chance to meet Jon of LivingRoom whisky – a blog started in Birmingham by two friends and neighbours.

It had happened by chance – I had recently run a competition on Miss Whisky with Suntory to win a bottle of Hibiki 17 and a cocktail lesson with the company’s UK brand ambassador and cocktail king Zoran Peric. Out of the many entries thrown (quite literally) into a hat, I pulled out Jon’s partner-in-blogging crime’s name – Mike. However, as Mike is a teacher, he was unable to make it down to London for the cocktail lesson, which he kindly passed on to Jon and his wife Sharon in his stead. How benevolent!

The event took place in the suave Bassoon Bar at the Corinthia Hotel – a plush 5* hotel hidden down Whitehall Place near Embankment. Upon arrival, I found Zoran prepping the bar, bottles of Suntory whisky lined up like soldiers awaiting orders.

I have written about my enjoyment of Suntory brands in the past (see: here). A go-to favourite is the gently peated Hakashu but I also enjoy the Yamazaki 12 as a standard bottle that will usually find itself in my cupboard. As I was there to be more of an observer, however, I was keen to see Jon and Sharon’s reaction to the drams.

As a bit of background, Japan exports a fair old schwak of whisky and if you’ve not tried them or not realised they’re rather tasty, I’d definitely recommend giving any of them a go. One of my most pleasing discoveries of last year was the Ichiro’s Malt Chichibu the First and I’ve yet to try a bad Japanese whisky.

But, much of the history starts with the Suntory group, which was founded by Shinjiro Torii who built Japan’s first distillery in the 1920s. While it wasn’t an easy start (the company almost failed a decade later) it rallied on release of its Kakubin blended whisky.  The company expanded when Torii’s son built Hakushu distillery (the world’s highest distillery) in 1973.

Soon after Jon and Sharon arrived, Zoran explained the history before launching into a tasting session, regaling us with tales of his trips to Japan. One of his favourite places, he said, is high up at the Hakashu Distillery, which sits in a forest.

“You can sit there and if you close your eyes and if you have a glass of Hakashu in your hands, everything makes sense,” he said.

Sounds enlightening indeed!

The tasting started out with the Yamazaki 12, which is a single malt whisky made from 70% American white oak barrels, 20% mizunara oak barrels and 10% Olorosso sherry barrels. It is the mizunara wood that gives it a distinctly Japanese touch – the wood comes from Japan’s northern island, Hokkaido, and adds deep  jammy fruit, citrus and sandlewood notes.

“It smells like walking into a temple,” explained Zoran of the casks.

This is a decadent sweet whisky, perfect (I find) as an after meal dessert replacement. Notes of banana and pear, toffee, butterscotch and cream flow through. It was Sharon’s favourite of the three we tried.

This was followed by the Hakushu 12 – a fresh, apple and pear whisky with teeny hints of smoke from the peated barley used in this brand – and the Hibiki 17. The latter is made of 30 types of grain and malt whiskies made at the Suntory distillery, and won the best Japanese blended whisky at this year’s Whisky Magazine, World Whisky Awards.

But, as the day was about cocktails, it was soon time to move on to allow Zoran to show off his skills with a shaker.

He demonstrated the ways to make two classic cocktails – the Rob Roy and an Old Fashioned – and another made up off the top of his head dependent on the preferences of the guests.

Jon’s favourite was the Old Fashioned made with Hibiki 17 – a labour intensive drink (if made correctly) that includes whisky, sugar, angostura bitters, orange peel and a drop of soda water. To make it correctly, according to Zoran, one must stir it for five to seven minutes to fully dissolve the sugar cube.

“These things take time to make. So it’s very Japanese,” he quipped.

Sharon, meanwhile, leaned towards the newly invented drink, which Zoran concocted from muddled fresh apricots, peach liqueur, orange bitters, Yamazaki 12 and a dash of ginger liqueur.

All in all, it was an interesting and fulfilling afternoon, a great pleasure to meet more people from the old Twittersphere and an even better excuse to have cocktails in the afternoon!

For more information about Suntory, its whiskies and history, visit: www.suntory.com/whisky

 

 

Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
1 Comment »

Win a bottle of Hibiki 17 & a cocktail lesson

May 11, 2012 in Uncategorized

Attention whisky cocktail lovers!! You listening?

Miss Whisky has a question for you…

Do you love trying new whisky cocktails?

Or…are you a newbie to whisky but keen to learn how to make some delicious drinks for you and your friends this summer?

Then you’re in the right place.

As the rain finally drifts out of our skies and the temperatures heat up, whisky highballs (an ever-more popular take on whisky and soda) will be the perfect way to quench dry throats.

One great way to make these delicious tipples is with Japanese single malt, like the Hakushu 12 year old, or blended whiskies, such as the Hibiki 17 and 21 year old, because of their smooth, floral honeyed flavours, which work brilliantly with a variety of cocktail mixers.

Last year, the 21 year old was named world’s best blended whisky for the second year in a row, while the Hibiki brand itself has held coveted titles for the past four years.

So, why is Miss Whisky telling you about this?

Because she’s going to be offering one lucky reader the chance to win a bottle of Hibiki 17 along with a one-hour personal cocktail class with top mixologist and brand ambassador Zoran Peric at the rather plush 5* Corinthia Hotel on the 29 June!

All you need to do to try and get your hands on this tasty prize is answer the following question:

In which year was Hibiki 21 year old named the world’s best blended whisky?

Send your answer (along with your age, name and address) on email to: misswhiskycomp@gmail.com by the 5 June.

The winner will be notified by e-mail.

And, if you want to learn any more about Japanese whisky, check out this piece on my experiences of it here!

Tags: , , , , , ,
1 Comment »

Win a bottle of Hibiki 17 & a Cocktail Lesson!

May 3, 2012 in Uncategorized

Attention whisky cocktail lovers!! You listening?

Miss Whisky has a question for you…

Do you love trying new whisky cocktails?

Or…are you a newbie to whisky but keen to learn how to make some delicious drinks for you and your friends this summer?

Then you’re in the right place.

As the rain finally drifts out of our skies and the temperatures heat up, whisky highballs (an ever-more popular take on whisky and soda) will be the perfect way to quench dry throats.

One great way to make these delicious tipples is with Japanese single malt, like the Hakushu 12 year old, or blended whiskies, such as the Hibiki 17 and 21 year old, because of their smooth, floral honeyed flavours, which work brilliantly with a variety of cocktail mixers.

Last year, the 21 year old was named world’s best blended whisky for the second year in a row, while the Hibiki brand itself has held coveted titles for the past four years.

So, why is Miss Whisky telling you about this?

Because she’s going to be offering one lucky reader the chance to win a bottle of Hibiki 17 along with a one-hour personal cocktail class with top mixologist and brand ambassador Zoran Peric at the rather plush 5* Corinthia Hotel on the 29 June!

All you need to do to try and get your hands on this tasty prize is answer the following question:

In which year was Hibiki 21 year old named the world’s best blended whisky?

Send your answer (along with your age, name and address) on email to: misswhiskycomp@gmail.com by the 5 June.

The winner will be notified by e-mail.

And, if you want to learn any more about Japanese whisky, check out this piece on my experiences of it here!

Tags: , , , , , , , , ,
No Comments »

An Eastern Turn

March 20, 2012 in Uncategorized

It took me a few seconds of ponderous staring at the bottle of Yamazaki 18 to realise what I was seeing – only half a bottle remained! With weary head spinning I attempted to dredge up the night before in my brain and I began to calculate. If half of this bottle was gone and if there had been three other bottles on the table that night, that must mean I had drunk…well…an awful lot.

The week prior to this bleary moment I had been kindly invited to try the range of Japanese whiskies from Suntory with brand ambassador Zoran Peric at Sake No Hana, a quirky ’60s staple of a Japanese restaurant located in London. We were joined by Eugene Bacot, the company’s PR representative, and the effervescent Zoe Griffin, long-time London celebrity columnist and blogger at Livelikeavip.com. We were to try the Yamazaki 12 and 18, along with Hakushu and Hibiki 17. Four people…four bottles. Luckily, I took notes!

This was a real treat indeed. I must confess that while I had been intrigued by Japanese whisky for a while and fell easily in love with Chichibu The First last year, I had not taken much time to really try a range at one sitting.

So, what did I learn about Japanese whisky?

The history dates back to the early 20th century when founder Shinjiro Torii built Japan’s first distillery after deciding to create domestic whisky for the local market. The first product was called Shirofuda, also known as White Label, but was too heavy for the Japanese palate and the distillery nearly failed, with Torii having to sell one of his breweries to keep the company afloat. In 1937, Suntory released Kakubin, which was a huge success that continues to this day, with 36 million bottles sold every year. The company continued on this path until Torii’s son built Hakashu distillery (the world’s highest distillery) in 1973.

The brand’s whisky leans heavily on Scottish tradition (even importing barley from Scotland for its single malts) but brings its own added twists that make it uniquely Japanese. Most importantly the company uses 12 pot stills at its distillery in six different shapes and sizes to create varying flavours in the new make spirit. It also heats them through steam, rather than fire, giving it a lighter characteristic, and makes some casks from Mizunara oaks, a rare type of oak that is at least 200-years old at harvesting.

After all this history it was time for some tasting. But I learned that in Japan one does not just drink whisky neat or on ice. In fact, they like to dilute it with three parts water to one part whisky in a style called mizuwari. And this is where things can get, well, dangerous. The Japanese style is to have food and whisky together, and to keep the open bottle of whisky on the table for constant mizuwari top ups. Which means you don’t notice those top ups so easily. At first, I thought this would ruin the flavour of the whisky, so I was very surprised to find that the flavours hold up extremely well, especially the Hakashu which was by far my favourite. It boasted scents of mulched grass and slight peat, but burst on the tongue with lychee, tropical fruit and vanilla notes. It worked beautifully with soft delectable pieces of sashimi and edamame. I also tried the mizuwari style with Yamazaki 12 but found it lost the flavour a bit and I much preferred it neat – it’s a sweet and sour dram hinting at maraschino cherries, lemons and grapefruit on the nose, with elements of brandied orange and oak on the palate. It paired perfectly with tempura prawns, the sweetness of the fish and saltiness of the batter marrying together in the mouth with the whisky. This was followed up by the Hibiki 17 – a 50% grain/50% malt whisky which is presented in a stunning, art-deco style bottle with 24 edged sides. It was delightful – slightly toasted and nutty, with a well rounded finish. The night was topped off with the very rich and complex Yamazaki 18 brimming with sherry, raisins and creamy coffee. I loved it so much, I took the rest home with me.

It was a great introduction to Japanese whisky and I highly recommend you give it a go if you want to see how they do it outside of the UK. Just be forewarned – it’s highly drinkable. So be sure you’re settled in somewhere cozy and warm for the night because after too many mizuwaris you’re not going to want to walk far in heels!

 

Tags: , , , , , ,
4 Comments »