Suntory Yamazaki 25 Year Old Sherry Cask

Always nice when high expectations are met, or even exceeded. Also nice to taste a rare or expensive without having to open your own bottle. While I've never had the Yamazaki 25(and likely never will), it's not hard to imagine it being a stunner. Congrats on snagging such an elusive whale, @MaltActivist.

Thanks @hunggar - I've had this sitting on my shelf for a few years now and I was always unsure what to do with it. Do I sell it and make room for more whiskies? Or do I risk opening it and being disappointed?

After tasting it last night I've decided to open it at some point (some happy milestone) and pace it slowly over a few years. It's quite beautiful and I think I'm too emotionally attached to it to sell it.

So what have you tasted that was better?

@OIJas there's not a whole lot that's better than this but if you were to hold a gun to my head I would have to say the Overeem Port Matured (Cask Strength). That one really changed my life!

And I had thought that you had finally had the courage to open your bottle... :-) Joke aside, you know my opinion about this one. Batch variation or not, the wood influence is too heavy for my palate. But that is what whisky tasting is all about: personal taste and preference. Glad that you enjoyed your sample.

@Pierre_W I was so happy to finally taste it that I figured there was no need to get picky just this once ;-)

@MaltActivist, nothing speaks louder on Connosr than a 100 point review score, particularly from someone who has posted 300+ reviews. It takes a brave man or woman to post a 100 point score, but then you are no shrinking violet. I've tasted only one bottle I would have rated at 99 points, and none to which I would have given 100.

If I opened a 43% abv bottle whisky which was worth a 100 point score from me I would immediately decant that bad boy, because I would not want anything from the experience to change much. 43% abv whiskies are far more vulnerable to losing balance after they are exposed to air than are the high-proof whiskies.

Glad to see such excellence being encountered by one of our own Connosr members. Too bad such bottles are nowadays likely to require the mega-bucks and/or be next to impossible to find.

Thanks for the enthusiastic review, and congratulations on your enjoyment of the rest of your bottle of Yamazaki 25 yo Sherry Cask!

If it's this good, then why not buy a full bottle? Three thousand well spent. Open it when you turn 100 years old.

If two other reviewers taste a sample of this whiskey and rate it nearly as highly, then it would top the Connosr "best of" list on the masthead. . . . So, Maltactivist, what do you say? Time to pull the trigger on a bottle and send out some friendly samples. . . .

Well, I glossed over that you were reviewing from a 50 ml sample. That sort of experience, 50 ml of a 100 point whisky, sort of makes one hunger for the follow-up taste of the same whisky, does it not? I know that I have always been curious to get another taste of the 1967 40 yo Duncan Taylor Springbank which I once had.

@Victor @Cunundrum To be perfectly clear the real reason I gave this whisky a perfect score is because I had waited so long to taste it. Even though I had a bottle on my shelf I just wasn't sure what occasion to open it. And it was next to impossible to get hold of a sample.

But then I finally got my hands on one and I was so happy that I was happy to disregard any flaws or imperfections it might have. Is it really and truly a 100 point whisky? Probably not. But let me put it this way. I was entertaining thoughts of selling this at some point and making room for more bottles. But now after tasting it I've decided to keep it and, once again, wait for that occasion I deem worthy.

I will at some point re-visit it and might even conduct an actual tasting. Till then I'm happy to let it sit atop my review scale.

@MaltActivist what a review! Can you share a few specific notes on the nose/taste/finish/balance? You can't leave us hanging.