Japan has a pretty serious liquor industry. Besides sake, beer, and shochu (a liquor made from sweet potatoes, rice, or barley), the country also produces a number of highly respected whiskies as well as umeshu, also known as plum wine.
While these are all very different kinds of alcoholic beverages, it’s easy to become a fan of each one’s delicious flavors. If you’re someone who likes both the smoky flavor of whisky and the sweet taste of umeshu, for example, then you’re probably going to love Japanese drink company Suntory’s new limited-edition plum liquor known as the Yamazaki Smoky Cask Plum Liqueur Blend.
This new type of umeshu is a blended plum liquor aged in old barrels previously used for distilling smoky whisky. It was formulated at the company’s Yamazaki Distillery in Osaka Prefecture, where they also produce their famous Yamazaki Whisky, including the 55-year old single malt whisky that sold for three million yen per bottle.
With a unique aroma and special depth of flavor, this liquor has been formulated specially to blend well with sparkling water and thus has a high alcohol content of 20 percent. Its sleek black label and shiny gold lettering makes it look like expensive liquor, but it will sell at the reasonable price of 1,705 yen per 750-milliliter bottle.
This is a special 2021-only release that will be available across the country only in limited quantities starting on November 16. While Suntory has other barrel-aged umeshu products out there, this is the only one so far that promises a smoky aroma, so if you love peaty whisky and umeshu, you’ll definitely want to give it a try.
Source: Suntory via Entabe
Read more stories from SoraNews24.
-- Suntory would like you to buy a three-million yen bottle of Japanese whisky
-- We taste the new Japanese KitKat, aged in whisky barrels in Islay, Scotland
-- We visit the Suntory Yamazaki Distillery, the newly-renovated, boozy paradise
- External Link
- https://soranews24.com/2021/09/10/suntory-to-release-new-yamazaki-smoke-barrel-aged-plum-liqueur-in-limited-quantities/
15 Comments
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Skeptical
I'll try it.
Monty
Suntory should focus again on Yamazaki and Hakushu Whiskey.
And release it for a reasonable price.
These days you pay up to 9.000円 in a liquor shop for the ordinary bottle.
TrevorPeace
I'll have my best friend in Sendai ship a few to me, if he can get it soon enough. $20 or thereabouts in CDN$, plus about four times that for shipping is still worth it.
Campai! Or however you spell it.
nandakandamanda
Agreed, I’d like to try that. The home-made stuff is okay, but this looks special. Actually made with Japanese apricots.
thepersoniamnow
Monty
Whiskey takes time to produce.
Its not something you can make this year and sell the next.
More like you are selling what you worked on a decade ago…then expound on that up to 100 years.
Since their success was kind of unanticipated, they probably “sold out” to keep it exclusive and maybe are letting time do the catch up work for them.
Numan
I have drank both umeshu and sake that has been stored like European wine in barrels. It tasted good, but the only real difference is the additional wood taste to the alcohols.
I will buy a bottle!
thepersoniamnow
If they were a luxury brand like Louis Vuitton or Burberry, they’d be burning their whiskey.
englisc aspyrgend
If it's made with Apricots, how can it be Plum brandy?
cleo
Because 梅(ume) is sometimes translated plum and sometimes apricot.
It's actually neither. Maybe calling it Japanese apricot is the way to go. When it's ripe it's an apricoty colour, though it usually gets used when it's still green.
And of course, the drink is not brandy, and it's not wine.
What it is, is very very tasty.
Kumagaijin
I sometimes drink Choya ume fruit liqueur. Its pretty decent and not too expensive. Its in the 14% alcohol range. Quite sweet. I'm curious what the difference between "ume fruit liqueur" and "plum liqueur" is. Its confusing.
cleo
I make my own. It’s scrumptious.
The biggest problem is using up all the ume after they’ve been sitting in the liquor for a year.
englisc aspyrgend
Cleo, thanks for explaining.
Brian Wheway
Is this only for the Japanese market? or will it be exported in small amouts around the world? I would like to try it.