Is there anything else like Irish pot still?

[Joel1802]

I couldn't tell you about the Yamazaki 12, but Mr. Google can probably help. It has been so long and I can't find my notes, guess that means I'm going shopping next time I'm in Seattle.

[bredman]

Personally i'm a fussy whisk(e)y drinker, anything that seems to deaden my palate, or close off my taste buds i recoil from. For this reason i don't enjoy Laga 16, or Talisker 10 (two big favorites for everyone else), and heavy sherry i can have problems with, although not always.

I'm a bit like you bred, just on the other side ... Really love The sherry influence but have found in the last while that bourbon barrel is becoming very samey for me. Obviously every distillery has a different carachter and can be poles apart but I am finding it hard of late to get past the gin like dryness I get from a lot of them in the finish. Yet I revel in the deep fruit complexity of sherry and other fortified wine matured whiskies.

Hi IWC. You may recall all my whining and suspicion at added colour and sulphur taint (yes i am still hyper sensitive when it comes to the S word ). These issues drove me away from moderate/heavy sherry influence, but show me some clean sherry and i'm a happy doggy . I am determined to find some good clean heavy sherry in the near future and i do have a few bottles waiting in the wings. The A'bunadh #20 is an all time favourite so i suppose i'm after a new #20.

After tasting the Yamazaki 12 yo last night I can honestly say that stuff has my undying support. Very drinkable and disarming, and yet with enough subtlety and character to be compelling to a similar degree as Irish pot still whiskey. I think I've found the first whisky that shares something in common with pot still whiskey, even though like many have said there isn't really anything that's the same.

Hey William, i'm a big fan of the Hakushu 12 (actually my favourite entry level Japanese) too, it's definitely on par with the Yama 12 for inherent quality. The other main players worth a punt are the Nikka single malts - Yoichi and Miyagikyo, both slightly heavier and oilier.

[William J]

Good to know there are other Japanese whiskies out there with the same lovely characteristics as the Yama 12, that stuff is some of the best 12 yo I've ever had. There's a bar in town called Ancestral, I reckon they will have some of the ones you mention. The only other bottles I can buy are the Yoichis, which is maybe more peated than the Miyagikyo? Or so I'm told.

For good clean sherry are you aware of the Benriach 12 sherry matured? Murray rates this as a good dram for 7am, or so he says in his latest bible, but really its quite nice with this amazing cocoa moment half way in. I paid very little for it (not sure why so cheap) but that only makes it taste sweeter

My copy of the 2013 edition has just arrived so I've been reading up on Jim Murray's impressions of what I have on my shelf. A lot of insightful observations and descriptions for sure but with the emphasis on certain bottlings shifting from year to year it's hard to know whether what i have is similar to what he's describing... I do wish I still had some of the John's Lane SPS of which he writes about so persuasively, "the delivery can come only from Irish Pot still -- I have encountered it nowhere else... rock hard grain so at home in the company of silken, molten honey."

And also, does anyone know the difference between Powers and Powers Gold Label?

[Joel1802]

Powers Gold Label is bog standard Powers (easy to drink a bottle in a night) and when people say Powers they generally mean the Gold Lable.

I'll keep my eye open for the Benriach. Glendronach does a good sherry monster in some of their single casks.

Yoichi does have more peat, kind of an old fashioned highlander in style.

I noticed this fellow is compared to PPS:

http://www.thewhiskyexchange.com/P-8917.aspx

[William J]

Joel, regarding the Powers I thought the same thing but Murray rates separate Powers and Powers Gold, with the latter having fallen off in quality apparently. I don't have enough history with it to know, im on my third bottle and its still as tasty as ever.

Will try and track down those Hakushu malts, the TWE review of the 18 looks very promising indeed.

[Joel1802]

I could be mistaken, but I don't think so. Maybe a bad edit?

[IrishWhiskeyChaser]

I could be mistaken, but I don't think so. Maybe a bad edit?

Yes the standard bottling is being referred to in both cases. The publicist/compiler is probably not aware it is one and the same.

[Joel1802]

Going from a very old bottle of Jameson 7 to a Mezan bottling of 1990 Enmore. The similarities were absolutely uncanny. The nose and taste start very much like old style PPS and then diverging in the end. Amazing.