Mars Whisky Tsunuki Peated Single Malt Japanese Whisky Skurnik

50% ABV, 750 ml, Non-chill filtered

This Single malt Japanese whisky, from the recently reopened Mars Tsunuki Distillery in Kagoshima,was distilled in 2016 and 2017 and bottled in 2020, aged 3–4 years in primarily bourbon and some sherry casks
With peat levels of 20 & 50 parts per million, Tsunuki Peated reads much like a peated Highland Scotch. A nose of smoked maple syrup, wet campfire, and dried apricot preps the palate for prominent peat and a note of sandalwood. The drying finish confidently displays browned butter, stemmy herbs, wet gravel, and a hint of menthol.

This 2100-bottle-release is the second from the newly reopened Mars Tsunuki Distillery. Located in the southern prefecture of Kagoshima from which the Hombo family originally helms, the weather is notably more humid and has greater fluctuation in temperature than the Mars Shinshu distillery in Nagano to the north and offers compelling diversity to the Mars book.

Sandwiched between Japan’s soaring Southern Alps and the towering Central Alps and at just over 2,600 feet, Mars Shinshu is Japan’s highest whisky distillery. The Hombo family has been distilling shochu for more than a century and added whisky to their repertoire in 1949. Back then, the distillery was located in Kagoshima Prefecture on the southernmost island of Kyushu. In 1984, the Hombo clan moved the distillery to the idyllic alpine setting of Miyada village in southern Nagano Prefecture. They chose this site for its cool temperatures, which slow maturation, and the plentiful and soft granite-filtered, snowmelt-fed aquifers.