SMWS 124.4 Miyagikyo “Full of Secret Pleasures”

Style: Musky Sherry bomb

Rating: ☆☆ [Highly Recommended]

Nose:

Hot Ribena boiling with peppermint leaves, quite stringent with all the spirit heat. Dunnage muskiness starting to surface. Woah, woah, what’s this? I haven’t tried a lot of Miyagikyo but this is something very different… Plenty of umami, a dash of chicken stock and soy sauce all simmering in a dusty room. Peculiar, to say the least. Blackcurrants buried deeply underneath.

Palate:

The deep sherry core breaks the dusky crust and showing its true colour on the palate. Syrup-thick black currants, icy mint slightly torched with fire. Incredibly sweet and rich. What caked within the sherry juggernaut seems to be a fresh stack of green grass. Brown sugar mixes with caramel sauce with distant amber smoke. Red fruits boiling with herbs. Very, very nice.

Finish:

Almost-Chinese herbal tones laying on overripe red fruits, tropical fruits cocktail punchbowl to finish. Delicious.

Thoughts:

Sometimes I just assume all Miyagikyo(s) are light and delicate but this is nothing like it, in fact, quite the contrary – Dusty and musky aroma followed by a powerful sherry bomb explosion on the palate. Incredibly moreish and lip smacking delicious. Certainly a memorable dram, too bad I didn’t get one when I had a chance…

[60.0% | Independent Bottling | 2014 Bottled | 1996 Distilled | Aged 17 Years | Single Cask | Non Chill Filtered | Non Coloured | 479 Bottles | Matured in First Fill Pedro Ximenez Sherry Butt | 1 of 479 Bottles | **]

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