Bottle Profile
Type	Japanese Whiskies
Bottler	Official Bottling
Bottled For	LMDW
Brand Name	Karuizawa
Year Distilled	1983
Year Bottled	2012
Alcohol By Volume	62.1%
Other Details	bourbon cask
Cask Number	#8597
Bottles	282
Issued	2012
Average Score	89

Maniac Ratings
Robert Karlsson	87
Konstantin Grigoriadis	87
Krishna Nukala	90
David Wankel	90
Keith Wood	92

Retired Maniac Ratings
Ho-cheng Yao	86

Tasting Notes
Robert Karlsson	Some spices, but difficult to get a grip on. Big fat buttery bourbony vanilla. Big mouth-coating vanilla, peppery and spicy (cloves). Smoke. Nice one.
Krishna Nukala	Rich heavy nose. Lots of complexities. Some heather and flowers.Some old classical nose. Restrained peat and smoke.Very sweet and spicy. Little dry and hot. Spicy and lava like talisker. Brilliant whisky. Blind tasted MMA 2012
Keith Wood	This edition of Karuizawa comes from LMDW's "Cocktail Series" and I have to ask "Do people really want to use this in cocktails?" I guess my Old Luddite-ness is rearing its overly-traditional head here? The colour is amber. The nose is earthy and very lightly toasted in character and expands with a faint rubbery leatheriness. After some minutes I'm also detecting suggestions of dark chocolate and fresh coffee. This is jam-packed full of character. The palate is initially creamy-smooth and then caressed by a rich tingle comprising hints of fresh fruit, an earthiness, leather and rubber. Why am I reminded of a very good cognac here? The finish is very long and delightful. My overall impression doesn't hesitate to use that word again "Great". In fact I'm even upgrading my MMA 2012 91 points to a very worthy 92.