Beginning in October 2019 with the rum barrel finished Caribbean Smooth, John Dewar and Sons has been releasing a series of 8 year old blends featuring a variety of cask finishes. For details on previous releases, check out https://jimsdrams.com/dewars/)
The latest offering in the series is Japanese Smooth. As you might have guessed, it is finished in Mizunara, a variety of oak native to Japan. Special thanks to Nick at Bottle Republic for helping me get my hands on a bottle.
As I did when I tasted the others in the series, I turned to the Dewar’s White Label as a starting point. By being familiar with the flavor of the White Label, it’s easier to pick out the specific flavors that come from the finish.
The color of the White label is pale straw. On the nose, it comes across with strong cereal notes. The palate is slightly creamy, which is surprising for a blend. The inclusion of grain whisky usually tends to make blended Scotch lighter in body than single malt. The strong cereal grain notes from the aroma register on the palate as well, along with a hint of honey sweetness. A touch of smoke appears in the finish, but this does not come across as a peated whisky. Overall, it is a nice mild sipper and would make a decent introduction to Scotch for the beginner. It represents a good value for the price point, and there is no surprise that it’s one of the top selling Scotch whiskies in the world.
Next, I wanted to refresh my memory on the flavor profile of Mizunara. For this, I turned to the Kaiyō, specifically the original black label. Like Jefferson’s Ocean, this whisky is aged at sea (Kaiyō is Japanese for ocean). This imparts a hint of salinity, like the Jefferson’s or a nice coastal Scotch. It’s very affordable as Japanese whiskies go, especially those aged in Mizunara, which makes it a good starting point in that category.
The color on this one is pale straw, very close to the Dewar’s (don’t mix up your glasses!). There are hints of wood and spice on the nose that are clearly from the oak, but not like anything you would expect from an American oak. The wood comes across more like sandalwood, and the spice is warm, but more like an Asian five spice than a western fall spice mix. On the palate, it is nice and warm. The wood and spice carry over from the aroma, with the spice lingering into the finish as the salinity emerges. This is typical of my experience with whiskies aged in Japanese oak.
So what happens when the typical Dewar’s profile gets together with Japanese Mizunara?
As with the other Dewar’s cask finishes, the Japanese Smooth is darker than the white label, benefiting from the extra exposure to wood, leaning towards a nice gold, almost amber.
On the nose, the spice of the Mizunara dominates. The familiar cereal notes are still there, but take a back seat. The sandalwood is very faint. If you’re not expecting it, you very well might miss it.
The palate opens with the familiar cereal of the signature Dewar’s flavor profile. The spice emerges in the middle, with a hint of the sandalwood showing up towards the finish, which is short. The cereal reappears at the end, with an almost yeasty, bready character. It is definitely the dominant flavor note.
In my opinion, this is a nice whisky. Whisky Advocate agrees, rating it 91 points, the highest in the series.
At $25 MSRP, it’s a few dollars more than the others in the Dewar’s series, but by far the least expensive Mizunara I’ve ever seen. Japanese oak is very rare and very expensive (with a single barrel costing thousands of dollars), so the higher price is not surprising. It’s also not surprising that this seems to be a smaller release and more highly allocated than the others. The store where I got mine was only able to get one case of six bottles. Luckily, they called me when it came in and offered to put one aside for me.
Overall, this does not come across as a whisky meant to showcase Japanese oak as a dominant flavor. It seems like the intention here is to highlight the Dewar’s flavor profile, with the unique oak playing a supporting role as an accent. If you’re looking for big, dominant wood flavors, if you’re looking for an “in your face” experience with Mizunara, there are better options.
But if you’re already familiar with Japanese oak and want to see how it gets along with Scotch whisky, or if you’re new to it and want to try it without breaking the bank, even if you just think it would be cool to have a bottle that says “Mizunara” on your bar, then it might be worth trying to track down one of these while they last.