Hakushu 12 Year, Revisited

 

I had an unfortunate run-in with Hakushu early in my drinking journey, with either a bad bottle or an unprepared/inexperienced palate. It might have been the bottle I disliked the most and was most disappointed in during the first 5-ish years I got seriously into whisky. I recently encountered another bottle and decided to engage with Hakushu again. 

Glenlossie 10 Year (Adelphi)

 

Glenlossie: yet another nearly forgotten Diageo distillery used almost entirely to provide bulk anonymous volume for Johnnie Walker blends other Diageo fodder. A name that is unknown to 99.5% of Scotch drinkers, and even the single cask independently bottled options are hardly seen. 

Auchroisk 11 Year (SMWS 95.96 "Brake Dust on the Fuchs")

 

For the curious, the name of this is a Porsche reference. My uncle has more or less exclusively repaired and restored Porsches for the last ~50 years, and I have spent a lot of time around them (passively - never got to drive any of the customer cars, ha!). Fuchs is the company that made wheels for Porsche for decades, hence the reference to brake dust. Lots of soot/ash/oil going on in this bottle, I would guess.