While we were at the Las Vegas Food & Wine Festival at Tivoli Village we got slightly astray from drinking wines.  If that is possible, but I saw a vendor table offering Japanese Whisky and I have never had any.  My Bride enjoys Dewar’s Scotch Whisky, even though I thought I would get her a treat of a bottle of Johnny Walker Blue Label, she still prefers her Dewar’s.  I on the other hand I guess I still have my heritage and enjoy Crown Royal Deluxe Canadian Whisky, especially for medicinal purposes; though I have to admit that I have several assorted bottles of Booker’s Kentucky Straight Bourbon Whiskey for sipping out of a snifter in the evening.

Tenjaku Whisky (and they also make a Gin) is created in the city of Fuefuki, in the eastern part of the Yamanashi Prefecture. It is known as the most fertile area for peach and grape production, hot springs and crystal-clear streams.  The water used has been filtered through volcanic rock.  Japan, just like Scotch, Irish and Canadian uses the Anglican spelling of whisky, whereas in the States, it is spelled as whiskey.  The “40” is a blended whisky, that was probably one of the easiest and smoothest whiskies, I have ever tried, very mellow and enjoyable, even from the thimble shots that they were pouring.

The Tenjaku Whisky Pure Malt “43” is a newer product developed by their Master Distiller Kenji Watanabe and uses all pure aged malt whiskies and stylistically is similar to a classic Scotch whisky.  After using the double pot distillation and blending processes, the pure Malt Whisky is aged in used Bourbon barrels for up to six years to allow flavor maturation.  I could see this bottle in my liquor cabinet as it offered notes of smoke, tones of green apples, herbs and vanilla with a wood finish.