Limited edition blended single malt Japanese whiskey distilled at Mars Shinshu and Mars Tsunuki distilleries and aged in the Mars Yakushima Aging Cellar
Distilled in copper pot stills from 100% malted barley, a blend of unported barley and peat to 3.5ppm
Non-Age Declaration; aged primarily in ex-bourbon casks with some ex-sherry casks
Aromas of vanilla wafers, young pineapple, orange peel and Bartlett pear skin precede flavors of candied tropical fruit, roasted sweet potato and vanilla salt water taffy leading to a long finish of malt and subtle smoke
Gold winner at the San Francisco World Spirits Competition 2023
Non-refrigerated; 52% ABV
Y.A. Series (this marks the first edition) have been created to further explore the influence of Mars’ aging basement in Yakushima. Single malts from both Mars Shinshu, high in the Alps, and Mars Tsunuki, in southern Kagoshima, are aged and blended on the remote island. 135 kilometers south of Kagoshima, Yakushima is lush with subtropical evergreen forests and vegetation. Heavy rainfall, humidity and coastal influence all contribute to the island’s fingerprint on the maturation of Martian whiskey.
Some of the best whiskey on earth comes from Mars. So the distillery Mars Shinshu in Japan!
Like many of the other distilleries in Scotland, Mars has a past in a very different industry. The company started in 1872 as a cotton manufacturer. In 1909 they started making shochu, which over the next 50 years developed into a larger portfolio of sake, umeshu and fruit wines, among other things. It was not until 1949 that whiskey production began, and in 1960 it was decided to switch to a higher gear. The man to manage the boilers was Kiichiro Iwai. Iwai was no novice in the world of whisky, and 40 years earlier he had employed the famous Masataka Taketsuru, now known as “the father of Japanese whisky”. In addition to his experience, he also had a small and inconspicuous notebook, which would prove to be extremely important. In it was hidden a treasure of knowledge – it was Masataka Taketsuru’s notebook, which he had prepared during his study trip in Scotland, and when he returned home presented to Iwai as part of his report. Kiichiro Iwai used the drawings in the book to design Mars’ new boilers.
Throughout the next period, production went up and down, and Mars was characterized by the same turbulence as the rest of the Japanese whiskey industry. From 1992 and 19 years on, there was no distillation. Slowly the demand for whiskey increased again and Mars realized that the stock they had been drawing on for the last 2 decades was running out. In 2011, the boilers were fired up again. With a “clean slate” after almost 20 years of inactivity, they felt free to experiment and find exactly the recipes that would define the new Mars.
Today they use 4 different types of malt, all imported from the UK: unsmoked, lightly smoked (3.5 ppm), heavily smoked (20 ppm) and super heavily smoked (50 ppm). It is fermented with 3 different types of yeast, and a number of different casks are used for cask aging, mostly bourbon from Jack Daniel’s, but also Madeira and port casks. In addition to experimenting with different types of casks, they are also investigating the effect of different environments on storage. For example, part of the crude spirit is sent to Yakushima, which is the place with the most rainfall in the whole world. The locals say that it “rains 400 days a year”.
