Review #209: Barrell Bourbon Cask Finish Series: Mizunara

MASH BILL: (derived) 76% corn, 20% rye, 4% malted barley

AGE: This is a blend of the following bourbons, the blend of which was finished for 18 months in Mizunara casks:

• 6, 7, and 8 year old Indiana bourbon (likely MGP)
• 8 year old Kentucky bourbon (likely Barton)
• 8 and 14 year old Tennessee bourbon (likely Dickel)

PROOF: 116.42

COST: $85 for 750mL bottle (I’m reviewing a sample)

A while back I participated in a Japanese whiskey tasting with a friend. It was a really great experience and featured a good variety of Japanese whiskey including some ultra-high age statements such as a 41 year single grain whiskey. One thing that wasn’t included in the tasting though was a whiskey aged in Mizunara casks (more on that later). After the tasting, my friend that attended gave me a sample of a Mizunara aged Japanese whiskey as well as this Barrell Mizunara Cask Finished Bourbon so that I can see what Mizunara is about. Let’s dive in!

Reviewed neat in a Glencairn.

NOSE: Delicate. Fruit forward with prominent bright fleshy fruit such as apricot and peaches. Butterscotch and berries add additional sweetness and a touch of tartness. There’s a nice blend of spices to accompany the delicate sweetness: baking spice, anise and mint. There’s an earthiness to this as well that’s a sort of minerally tannic oak note.

PALATE: Velvety mouthfeel but leaves an extremely oily coating on the palate. It drinks WAY under its proof! Rich caramel and dark fruit notes lead off. The dark fruit is a nice contrast to the brighter, more delicate fruit on the nose. Toasted vanilla and dried tea leaves begin to appear after the initial sweetness. Then the spicier notes start to settle in: anise, clove, cedar, and orange zest. I prepped my palate for this dram with a small pour of the Mizunara Japanese whiskey shared with me first. Because of this, I find the delicate “Mizunara” like notes in the background – sandalwood, wildflower honey, and herbal spice. These notes really show up most prominently right at the swallow, allowing just a small window they can be picked out amongst the dominating notes of the bourbon. I’m not certain I would have recognized them if I hadn’t had the Mizunara Japanese whiskey first.

FINISH: Long, sweet finish. The Mizunara notes from the tail end of the palate carry over at first and combine with sweet vanilla to create a nice earthy sweetness with a delicate spice. The dark fruit notes from the palate transfer over well at first but morph into the brighter fruit notes from the nose towards the end of the finish. The most proof heat I get on the whole sip is in the finish, and even then I would still say it feels like a solid 10-15 proof points lower than it actually is.

RATING: 7.9/10

OVERALL: It always helps when a finished whiskey starts off with a delicious blend as the base. It’s obvious when lipstick is put on a pig, but that’s not the case here. This is a delicious bourbon blend with a mild influence from the Mizunara oak barrels. It takes a long time for Mizunara oak to impart its delicate flavors on a whiskey due to the porous nature of the wood grain. Often, Mizunara aged whiskies have higher age statements than whiskey aged in American white oak because it takes longer to reach a balance in flavor. Additionally, Mizunara oak has less tannins than American white oak, so this also leads to a less tannic, wood-forward profile for whiskey’s aged in Mizunara. I do feel like that component is somewhat lost on this expression because it still starts off with a blend of bourbons, and no matter how good that blend is, those whiskeys already spent 6-14 years in American white oak barrels pulling in a lot of those tannins that the Mizunara oak wouldn’t provide. That said, Barrell allowed this whiskey to sit in the Mizunara oak barrels long enough to impart the subtle flavors of the Mizunara oak that are found tucked away in the nooks and crannies of this expression. I think it’s a good whiskey, and the complexity is there for sure, but if I didn’t have the Mizunara Japanese whiskey to start with, I’m not sure I would have picked up on the subtle Mizunara flavors.

Behind the Bottle

During the whiskey tasting I spoke about in the intro, we did have a brief discussion about the status of Mizunara with a master distiller in Japan. He mentioned that the Japanese government has put strict limitations on when Mizunara oak trees can be harvested, the age they must be, what forests they can be harvested from, etc. For all intents and purposes, it is a federally protected tree. This has created rarity and scarcity that alone can drive supply and demand, but it has also driven some distillers to say Mizunara just isn’t worth it.

There’s certainly still a desire to use the species for whiskey making both in Japan and internationally, but some distillers are deciding it’s just not worth it and are turning to American white oak or French oak as their primary wood choice. There are three main drivers for this:

1. Scarcity created by government restrictions on harvesting Mizunara oak.
2. Mizunara oak has a very twisted, curly grain making it hard to work with and create barrel staves from. It’s actually so difficult to work with that specialists are required, and some cooperages are choosing not to maintain the specialization. This also leads to higher production costs.
3. Mizunara oak is a water oak varietal. “Mizunara” literally means water (mizu) oak (nara).
• Like other water oak varieties, it has a very porous grain structure, which leads to more leakage of whiskey through the barrels than other oak species with a tighter grain. Attempts to mitigate this are done by preferring Mizunara tress grown in south Japan where it is colder and the grain is tighter as well as cooperages making thicker staves to prevent too much leakage.
• The wood has a high water content which means it must dry out for a longer time before it can be used (I’ve read two years at minimum to get to the target of 14% moisture content or less).
• The high water content and porousness also lead to less dense wood tannins (as well as different tannins in general). Therefore, Mizunara doesn’t impart as much flavor as other oak species, thus requiring longer aging times to see the flavors from the wood.

With all the problems that are created by Mizunara, I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s completely abandoned by cooperages at some point in the not-so-distant future. Other than Suntory, I think most distillers that use Mizunara aren’t making whiskeys that are aged 100% in Mizunara anyway. Instead, they’re only making one or two barrels aged with Mizunara and then blending that in with other barrels, or, like Barrell did with this expression, finishing whiskeys in Mizunara casks. It’s not clear to me that it’s worth it with as delicate the flavors are and as difficult to work with as it is. I believe Mizunara is at a spot where the name is associated with luxury and quality and therefore there’s a demand for it. But it’s not necessarily a better wood in any way, and in a lot of ways, it’s worse. While there’s some unique notes it contributes, it’s not life changing or even awe-inspiring really. So, at what point will the last Mizunara cask be made?

What I think is more reasonable is at some point we will see Mizunara used more just for finishing with staves/spirals of Mizunara that are designed to be inserted into the spirit and float around inside the barrel or finishing vessel. This seems the most reasonable path given all the difficulties that the wood creates when trying to use it for a barrel. Regardless, I do feel like if Japanese distillers are starting to decide it’s just not worth the hassle to deal with Mizunara barrels, the rest of the world will go that way eventually as well.

 

1 | Disgusting | ...I've not subjected myself to this level

2 | Poor | Balcones Lineage

3 | Bad | High West Double Rye, Jefferson's Ocean 28

4 | Sub-par | Weller's SR, Woodford Reserve Distiller's Select, Hillrock Estate Sauternes CS

5 | Good | Buffalo Trace, Sazerac Rye, Green River Wheated

6 | Very Good | Blanton's, Holladay Bourbons, Eagle Rare

7 | Great | Baker's 7yr SiB, BBCo Origin High Wheat, 1792 BiB

8 | Excellent | Most ECBP batches, Maker's Mark Wood Finishing releases, High West MWND Act 11

9 | Incredible | Woodford Reserve Batch Proof 121.2, BBCo Disco #7 and #13, Four Roses OESQ

10 | Perfect | Found North Batch 08, RR15