Distillery: 松の泉酒造 Matsunoizumi Shuzō

Address: 169-1 Uekita, Asagiri, Kuma District, Kumamoto 868-0422

Website: https://www.matsunoizumi.co.jp/

Additional Content: There is a short introduction to Matsunoizumi and this amazing shochu as well.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvFTbwH2dW8

Name: 古蔵2002年謹製 Kokura 2002 Vintage

Type: 米焼酎 Rice shōchū
Ingredients:

米 Rice
米麹（国産）Rice Koji (Domestic)

Alcohol: 35%

In the bottle: A nice slightly sharp rice shochu nose at the start, once it calms down you can get a good sense of what to expect in the bottle; all the big notes are there, vanilla, caramel, custards and something that reminds me of vanilla orange soda. Overall, this feels refined, fresh and ready to be enjoyed in the glass.

On the rocks: Unbelievably smooth, almost creamy, with big notes of vanilla and burnt caramel; it drinks so cleanly, it is hard to feel the 35% alcohol. The amber hue in the glass gives the impression of oak aging (which I could not find anything online to support this); however, I do not catch any specific oaky notes, so not sure where that is coming from.

水割り Diluted with water

4:1, Kokura on the rocks is already smooth and with a little water, this almost smooths out too much and all of the defining notes become too soft.

Paired with chocolate: Now that is a beautiful pairing, those nice vanilla and caramel notes blend into a perfect balance with the semi-dark chocolate, reminds me of a dark chocolate ganache with some hints of citrus. Paired with an 80% dark chocolate it becomes so rich and velvety; this would make a great secret ingreditent in a chocolate cake.

Enjoy on-the-rocks

Reflections on this shōchū

This was one of the first bottles I bought at Mongatari in Tokyo and was a suggested of the young guy behind the counter, while it took me a little over a year to open it up, it proved to be a key reason why I always try to stop by when in town.
Definitely one of the best bottles I have opened in a long time, it hits every beat you could want in a rice shochu, amazingly smooth, and packed full of huge notes of caramel, vanilla, and toasted rice.
It is tough with some of these bottles when you cannot find a lot of information on them, the amber hue certainly gives the impression of barrel storage; however, I did not catch a lot of the typical notes that oak leaves behind. Just wish there was a little more information to be found.