Prunes, forest honey, vanilla seeds, dark chocolate cookies, and Brazil nut, with hints of chocolate orange and ground pepper: I’m hooked. Cocoa, Whoppers, baked orange, jellied peel, jumpy peppery spices, tamarind bark, and milk chocolate pralines on the palate, and chocolate, stewed fruits, and walnut once the strength dies down. This is the complete package, and a prime contender as one of the year’s tastiest new Japanese whiskies.

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Winter 2020)

Bottled to celebrate the refurbishment of Mars Shinshu Distillery, it’s named after the area’s native chestnut tiger butterfly. The nose is beautiful but delicate: cotton candy, spring blossoms, powders and lotions, rose-scented Turkish delight, fresh linen, and cherry sherbet. The palate offers ripe orchard fruit, vanilla custard, clove, and honey. Its smooth mouthfeel makes graceful transitions between flavors, showing glimpses of cherry and strawberry. (1,122 bottles for U.S.)

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Spring 2021)

Yes, there is a cute, mewing black kitten on the label. Turkish delight, pomegranate, rose water, lemon, lime zest, clementine, and sandalwood. A syrupy texture with the sweetness of hard fruit candy; there are flavors of cooked apple, mandarin, butterscotch, melon, ginger, and chili pepper. The slow crescendo of spices is particularly impressive. The pleasantly fruity finish sees a drop-off in the spices. Distinctively aromatic and exotic.

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Fall 2017)

Distilled at Mars Shinshu, but matured in the Mars Tsunuki aging cellar, this charms with fresh fruity notes of raspberry, apple, and pear, with banana loaf, baking spices, lemon zest, and seasoned oak. The opening flavors of vanilla fudge and warm fruits are submersed by a vigorous peppery incursion, though there’s pear, chocolate, malt, and vanilla pod flavors once that settles. I recommend experimenting to pinpoint your preferred dilution.

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Winter 2020)

This new, higher proof Iwai (pronounced EE-why) was designed for cocktails; however, it’s supple and more than capable as a neat sipper too, with pleasing aromas of honey, ripening pear, barley, exotic woods, and citrus. The palate of honey sweetness, sugar cubes, vanilla, pear, apricot, and spice bows out with honey, breakfast cereal, nougat, and white chocolate. It’s a delicious and unusual whisky from Japan, less aligned with the country’s scotch-like tradition of malts and blends and more similar to bourbon, being made mostly from corn. Number 19 in the 2020 Top 20

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Winter 2020)

Distilled at the Shinshu distillery in Nagano, and matured both there and at the aging cellar on Yakushima Island, this whisky has a compelling balance of cask influences. Aromas of honey, cherry gummy bears, red apple, heady floral scents, banana muffin, vanilla essence, menthol, and feisty aromatic spices. The palate takes a journey through honey, grapefruit, lime zest, Honey Smacks cereal, red apple, playful spices, then more sherry fruit matched by ginger, clove, and pepper. (3,659 bottles)

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Fall 2020)

If whisky were a warm hug, this would be it. The sweet nose is rich with a lovely fruitiness of satsuma, Seville orange marmalade, yuzu, and vanilla. This carries a velvety texture rippled with an orange-flavored effervescence; apricot jam, sweet orange, sherbet, fine spices, ground ginger, and hot pepper. If this well-made example is an indication of the Mars Shinshu house style, they are getting a lot of things right. (10,000 bottles)

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Fall 2020)

This boasts a nice balance of baked apple, stewed fruits, fresh spices, and deeply caramelized sugar. The integration of the spice and fruit is a notable Japanese whisky hallmark, and the dense mouthfeel peels back layers of dark syrup, plum, chocolate, burnt cookies, baked sugared fruits, and background spice. The finish sees the spices perk up against the fading strength of the fruit and chocolate flavors. (3,000 bottles; 564 for U.S.)

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Spring 2021)

Aromas of ripe peach, barley, dry spices, waxy green leaves, baked citrus, scorched earth, and dried flowers on Hombo Shuzo’s debut whisky from Mars Tsunuki Distillery, produced in the 2016–2017 season. Sipping reveals sweet orange, chocolate, and clove, though the spices are straining at the leash and the high-strength alcohol can KO unwary taste buds. Dilute and the fruits shine beautifully while the spices are kept in check. (9,984 bottles)

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Winter 2020)

Boosting the ABV gives this more versatility for whisky-based cocktails, but neat, there are aromas of honey, barley, exotic woods, ripening pear, box-fresh sneakers, citrus, and fruity acids, with the spices turned down low. A convoluted profile winds through vanilla, sugar cubes, and honey fudge, followed by pear, apricot, and a gentle crescendo of spice, before hitting a plateau of honey, breakfast cereal, nougat, and white chocolate to finish. Best Value

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Fall 2020)

The original Iwai pot stills from the 1960s have been retired and now stand outside the Mars Shinshu Distillery. Cajoled by the savory, almost gamey aromas assimilated with brown apple and old strawberries, the whisky is surprisingly candy sweet to the taste. Dark jellied fruits: first Rowntree’s Fruit Gums, then Fruit Pastilles. Hazelnut, gentle oriental spices, and chicory coffee usher in a deep, fruity finish with creamy chocolate and fresh mint.

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Fall 2017)

Fruit-led on the nose, with cherry cola, damson, plum, aromatic spices, and coriander seed, plus hints of currant and mixed peel. The texture is light, with flavors of toffee, date, brown sugar, chocolate, cocoa, and malty drinks. (U.S. exclusive; 1,272 bottles)

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Spring 2021)

This young whisky from the Mars Shinshu Distillery was matured in Japanese wine casks. Fragrantly aromatic with perfumed florals, apple blossom, and pastel-colored chalky candy. By way of explanation, Rindo means “gentian,” the mountain flower of Nagano. Its light texture is rather sweet, with caramel, mango, a piquancy of tart oranges, and a little underlying pepper and clove. A snarl of pepper and lingering soft fruits rounds things off. (8,200 bottles)

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Spring 2017)

This carmine dram has a soft, mellow nose of raisin, earthy red wine notes, wet slate, prune flesh, stewed rhubarb, caramelized brown sugar, and maple syrup. It’s fruity rather than sweet on the palate, but it seems held back at 40% ABV without a heavier mouthfeel, showing date, red plum, sultana, fudge, red velvet cake, brown sugar, and peppery spice, with a raspberry and spice finish.

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Fall 2020)

This is sweeter than Mars Kisoyama, with a spicier finish making it a great choice for Highballs and mixing. The nose has ground spices with occasional more aromatic flourishes and hints of whole ginger root and garlic bulb. Some herbal notes in the initial sip, but the mouthfeel is delicate and carries pleasant flavors of caramel, toffee, fresh melon, baked apple, and a gentle spiciness. (BevMo-exclusive; 6,000 bottles).

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Spring 2021)

A fusion of Japanese and Scotch whisky from the owners of the Mars Shinshu Distillery, who have recently opened a second distillery named Tsunuki. Dates, treacle, red cabbage, and maitake mushroom add intrigue. Light-textured, sweet and juicy, with burnished orange, toffee apple, dark caramel, but some lackluster spices. The texture becomes fatter with dilution, as damson flavors emerge. Finish of bonfire toffee, flat cola, raisins, and spice. £75

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Spring 2017)

Fragrant spice, cherry, and gummy bears on the nose, though it’s quite subdued. A light mouthfeel of caramel, pepper, and cherry candies develops a more complex array of spices, getting a late lift of fruity sweetness as the spices die out. Passes muster as a Japanese whisky, but it’s quite basic for a straight sipper (BevMo-exclusive; 10,000 bottles).

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Spring 2021)

Prunes, barbecue seasonings, and hoisin sauce, sweetened by rich caramel; soak up the heady aromatics. Gloopy texture on the palate explodes into life with burnt orange, dried mango, and banoffee pie, spiraling down to black licorice, burnt oak, and Brazil nut. The name acknowledges Kiichiro Iwai’s role in ushering in whisky making for Hombo Shuzo in the 1960s, drawing on the notes diligently recorded by Masataka Taketsuru in Scotland.

Reviewed by: Jonny McCormick (Fall 2017)