Suntory Kakubin Black 43° vs Johnnie Walker Black Label

Written by Ruey of The Ruey Review
Updated 01 Mar 2016

In Japan, people who are not fans of beers or sours, but still enjoy a few drinks with their buddies, tend to go for highballs when at the Izakaya with their friends. A highball is a whisky cocktail. It is whisky mixed with carbonated water. However, there are many variations. For example, you can mix ginger ale with whiskey which is ginger-high, Oolong tea mixed with whisky to get oolong-high, brown sugar carbonated water mixed with whisky to get Koku-high, or black-high.

One of the most notable choice of whisky for mixing highballs is the Suntory Kakubin blended whisky. A Kakubin Highball is referred to as Kaku-High. Since I have a “Black 43°” version of the Suntory Kakubin, I thought I’d drink it straight and write a review on it.

Then I thought, such a review just wouldn’t be interesting enough. Why not pit the Suntory black kakubin against the world-dominating blended whisky, the Johnnie Walker Black Label?

The Johnnie Walker Black Label is an iconic blend which helped the brand to become the Darth Sidious of the whisky universe. It is one of the best-selling scotch in the world today. Many whisky-lovers believe that the Johnnie Walker Black Label is too premium to be a mixer base, and that it should be enjoyed neat. However, since the Suntory Kakubin Black 43° is two up from the standard Kakubin and one up from the White Kakubin bottles, maybe similar to how Black Label is one up from the Johnnie Walker Red Label, I thought it would still be fair to line the two black-labeled blended whiskies up against each other.

This is Suntory vs Johnnie Walker, East vs. West, the Emperor of Japan vs the Emperor of THE Empire. I’ll have them neat, not mixed, and see how they fair against each other.

Colour: 

Both of yellow whisky colour with the Johnnie Walker Black Label just a tad bit darker.

Nose:

Kakubin Black 43° - Alcohol, not much else. Very very very faint fruitiness in the back, raisin.

Johnnie Walker Black Label- Horrible scent. It is the THE whisky smell I hated before I became a whisky connoisseur. It is the smell of the poison I put in ginger ale to consume with my highschool friends in order to fit in. When I smell this I can almost get what I got from the Johnnie Walker Gold Reserve but then before I get there I get stopped by this coarse wall built by bricks of grossness; bringing back very unpleasant decade old high school memories. Some of these memories consist of me puking through my mouth as I struggle to get home after parties at my friends’. What is that grotesque element that I despise? Is it licorice?

Palate:

Kakubin Black 43° - Gentle, vanilla, and very fruity. It is a sweet piece. Definitely packs more taste to it than its scent. There is definitely malts that had been finished in sherry or port casks. It can in my opinion, actually pass as a bearable low price-range single malt. It can do fine by itself, just fine.

Johnnie Walker Black Label- Taste is much better than it smells. However, as the dried fruits are just getting out of their doors to say hello to me they get quickly slapped by the grossness that gives me the about-to-barf sensation near my diaphragm. There is some nice whisky smokiness in the finish but then again the bad taste is just way too distracting for me. I think again that the demon of distraction is the bastard child of licorices and maybe chenpi- dried tangerine peel- gosh I hate both these blasphemous things. Johnnie walker says this is a blend that consists of various elements of fruits, sweet smoke and gentle peatiness… well I say why don’t you just get a proper single malt to enjoy each of those flavours whole-heartedly? Such monster blend consisting of 40 different malts is just a very distracting bottle and I don’t get why it is so revered. Maybe contrary to what some scotch lover say, it really is meant for cocktails and the mixing with sodas, but I really don’t understand how people can enjoy whisky by mixing it with sodas… anyway, that is a different world I do not live in.

Verdict: Do I need to say more? I enjoy whiskies, not whisky cocktails or whisky mixes… so why am I even writing this piece? My verdict is, you can enjoy the Suntory Kakubin neat, but not the Johnnie Walker Black Label. At least that is what my body tells me, very strongly.

Bruichladdich Islay Barley 2009 （布萊迪艾雷島大麥2009）

Written by Ruey of The Ruey Review
Updated 23 Feb 2016

布萊迪艾雷島大麥2009是位於艾雷島中部海岸的布萊迪蒸溜所推出的一支非泥煤煙燻的單一純麥。這支酒的重點比較不在於它的蒸餾過程，透過這款單一純麥，布萊迪是要將某一年份的農作物原料以及當年的氣候以及地勢環境呈現於最後成品的享用體驗裡，從這個角度來看，它的的概念比較接近釀造葡萄酒的理念。布萊迪艾雷島大麥2009用的是2008年收割的大麥，來源是四個位於艾雷島中央的大麥農戶，大麥的品種為英國的“酒館老闆”以及“津橋”種。

這是在威士忌界裡面非常新的一個概念。通常威士忌蒸餾廠會著重於他們製程的一致性以及他們保留原味，也就是自己維持自己酒廠特別味道的一致性的功力。但是在葡萄酒的世界裡，年份、環境及葡萄的品種才能夠主宰一支葡萄酒的價值。而特定年份的酒的味道呈現出來之後以後就不會再有一樣的味道了，這才是標榜年份風土條件的酒的價值所在。布萊迪想要將這種觀念導入威士忌的世界裡，推出了這些年份酒... 至於是否真的能夠釀成一波威士忌革命，我們還是得拭目以待了。

KAVALAN Concertmaster Single Malt Whisky

Written by Ruey of The Ruey Review
Updated 16 Feb 2016

The first post of 2016 on the Ruey Review is on the King Car Distillery in Yilan, Taiwan. It is a thorough description of the very beautiful distillery but we never did provide comments on the actual whiskies it produces now did we? Well today’s whisky review is on the Kavalan Concertmaster, one of many King Car Distillery-produced whiskies.

The Concertmaster is the entry level Kavalan whisky- I mean it is the cheapest whisky Kavalan has to offer… but it is not cheap at all just so you know. It is matured in American Oak and finished in Ruby, Tawny, and Vintage port casks. The malts coming from these different finishes then get blended at the distillery into the Concertmaster.

There is no age statement on the Concertmaster as is the case for all Kavalan whiskies. The distillery only began operation in 2005, it would have been a bit odd to state 3 year-old malts (Kavalan whiskies began selling in 2008). However, just because Kavalan whiskies do not stay in maturation casks as long as most Scotch do, it does not mean that they are not ready for malt fanatics to enjoy. As mentioned in “KAVALAN Whisky Distillery”, Taiwan sits beneath the Tropic of Cancer. Having a much warmer, humid environment, Kavalan whiskies receive more vibrant interactions with the casks, helping the whisky mature much faster than those sitting in the casks in Scotland.

The Revenant

Reviewed by Danny the Demented

Updated Feb 05 2016

JTHE REVENANT Official Trailer 2 (2015)

Don’t you just love it when, at the movies, you get to relax, forget about the stress from the everyday life, and be in somebody else’s shoes for just a brief moment? These tiny breathers the moving pictures provide can be such pick-me-ups. People go to the movies to escape from reality so they can continue to bear reality. Stress-relief is vital on this journey we call life.

So......yeah this movie does none of that. It’s like, super gruesome. I am like, so serious. If you are short on stress in your stock, look no further, this movie supplies plenty.

Inspired by a true story (amazingly), The Revenant is the new film by acclaimed director Alejandro Iñárritu. It tells the story of a badly injured hunter/scout Glass (Leo DiCaprio), finding strength and courage under extreme circumstances, to his road of revenge on those who left him for dead, betrayed vows and honour, namely Fitzgerald (Tom Hardy). This is a tale of both survival and revenge. So yeah...some heavy shit.

Johnnie Walker Gold Label Reserve (約翰走路金牌珍藏)

Written by Ruey of The Ruey Review
Updated 2 Feb 2016

由蘇格蘭生產的威士忌中，有九成是調和式威士忌；而其中全球銷量最好的莫過於大家熟悉的約翰走路（Johnnie Walker）了。今天要跟大家分享的威士忌就是屬於該系列，也可說是主宰威士忌世界的霸主級酒款之一： 「約翰走路金牌珍藏」（Johnnie Walker Gold Label Reserve）。

金標的約翰走路的調和比例其實是來自於公司創辦者約翰沃克（John “Johnnie” Walker）的孫子亞歷山大二世之筆記；這是亞歷山大二世為了紀念約翰走路創業百年而特地調和出來的味道。這個味道包含了15種不同的單一純麥，但在第一次世界大戰期間，某幾種酒源短缺，所以始終無法正式推出。所幸，後人於1997年依照亞歷山大二世所留下來的調和筆記、並以15年~18年以上的單一純麥下去調和，終於推出了「約翰走路金標」。不過，到了2013年，約翰走路改變策略，為這款酒去除了原酒年齡的門檻，而以原酒的製程及味道為主要篩選單一純麥的條件，重新推出了這款Non-Age Statement（不標榜酒齡、而是標榜酒味）的調和式威士忌：約翰走路金牌珍藏。

The New Non-Aged Yoichi (Launched Sept. 2015)

Written by Ruey of The Ruey Review
Updated 26 Jan 2016

The Yoichi single malt series by Nikka Whisky has been one of the most sought-after malts in Japan in 2015. While it had already been a well-revered Japanese whisky, the sudden spike in demand last year was mainly due to the broadcasting of Massan, a popular TV show about the Father of Japanese Whisky- Masataka Taketsuru and his wife Rita Cowan, from September of 2014 to March of 2015. Remember how we mentioned that Taketsuru also contributed albeit indirectly to the creation of Mars? This sudden surge in demand causes the the depletion of certain malt reserves within the distillery thus the discontinuation of the old Yoichi single malts the world had known until to 2015 autumn. Now the new Yoichi is a single malt under the same brand name with apparently different content than what was before September of 2015. This review is of this new version of non-aged Yoichi Single Malt.

The Yoichi distillery is the most northern whisky distillery in Japan. It is the first distillery Taketsuru founded upon his return from Scotland, also making it the first distillery of Nikka whisky. The vision he held is to create in Japan a whisky that is truly Scottish. To do that, he chose a location in Japan that most resembles the Scottish highland. Taketsuru found such a place in Yoichi, Hokkaido in northern Japan. The distillery is located at 1,500 sea level, in an area that is covered in snow during the winter and where the snow melts in the spring. Taketsuru also chose the location of his distillery to be close to a water source that is enjoyed by Ayu fish and salmon. More importantly, Yoichi allows the distillery access to coal and peat, essential to the smoky flavor Taketsuru wanted in his “True Scotch Whisky”.

Ardbeg Ten Years Old (阿貝十年)

Written by Ruey of The Ruey Review
Updated 19 Jan 2016

Since in the whisky section of this blog we want to share Eastern Whiskies with people in the West, and Western Whiskies with people of the Far East, this review of an Islay single malt will be written in Mandarin for the people of Taiwan to use as reference. This is also the first non-English post in this blog, here it goes...

Ardbeg Ten Years Old, 也就是「阿貝十年」，號稱是世界上最有泥煤味、最富煙燻味的一支威士忌。這支酒來自蘇格蘭的艾雷島產區，蒸餾廠位於島的東南海岸，而這座蒸餾廠的參觀評價也相當的高。此酒廠於西元1798年即開始產酒，曾於1981年一度面臨停廠的命運，後來得到金主支援得以重新開業。現在酒廠則隸屬格蘭傑集團，也因此間接被納入路易威登集團旗下。回到酒本身吧，因為Ardbeg的酒精濃度高達46%而且並沒有經過冷過濾的程序，所以蒸餾廠認為，這款酒可說是完全保留住單一純麥所應該有的最原始、最完整的味道與層次。