Fuji Gotemba Riku Japanese Whisky

FUJI GOTEMBA RIKU
Non-Chill Filtered

MASH BILL – unstated blend

PROOF – 100

AGE – NAS

DISTILLERY – Fuji Gotemba (Kirin)

PRICE – $9 (¥1350) for a 500ml bottle

WORTH BUYING? – Sure!

Uncorked and tasted in The Year of No Buying (The what? 🔗 here.)

Fuji Gotemba Riku is not a sought-after Japanese whisky. It’s not available outside of Japan, a detail that can up the interest for whisky fans abroad. But international aficionados of Japanese whisky are not going to any trouble, zero, to load up on Riku at Narita Duty Free, or get business traveling friends to do so on their behalf, or order it online from e-shops that ship internationally. And yet this is the Japanese whisky I brought back in my own suitcase when I recently visited Japan. Not some rare Hibiki or a Yamazaki 18 Year. Nope. The seemingly disposable Fuji Gotemba Riku is what I wanted.

Here’s why.

I’d gone to Bar High Five in Ginza, Tokyo. It is widely considered one of the top cocktail bars in the world. Patrons sit in near silence, amber lighting and faint jazz music gently warming the chilly quiet. There is no menu, just a short list of questions asked—do you prefer refreshing or spirit-forward, sweet or smoky…? And from the patron’s answers, a custom cocktail is devised.

I loved this. An informed surprise. Very hospitable. The gift-giving impulse handled with the most precise mixological skill. Craftsmanship and creativity in perfect balance.

Based on my interview, the bartender graced a thin chilled coupe with a blend of Fuji Gotemba Riku, 20-year Valdespino Don Gonzalo Oloroso Sherry, and 1846 Licor de Bellota Machaquito. I don’t know the ratios. It was exquisite.

Fuji Gotemba Riku was originally created for use in bars. Designed for mixing, the 50% ABV and lack of filtration offer a flavor punch above the more common ~40% ABV Japanese whiskies that habitually filter their flavor down, then add a dash of artificial color. There is no sign on the label that the Riku lacks added color. But the ABV and unfiltered state of the whisky is a prominently advertised, appealing prospect. Now readily available to the Japanese public in every corner liquor store, a standard 500ml bottle of Fuji Gotemba Riku costs around ¥1350, less than $10.

But it wasn’t the whisky itself that compelled me to buy a bottle and carry it home in my checked luggage. It was that cocktail. I would likely never have found the particular sherry or acorn liqueur used in the cocktail during my trip, even if I’d tried. I’ve since clicked endlessly around the www. The 20-year Valdespino Don Gonzalo Oloroso Sherry does turn up here and there in a few east-coast US shops. And that 1846 Licor de Bellota Machaquito appears to only be sold in Europe.

I wasn’t determined enough to get into shipping. But the Riku was ubiquitous in Japan, so I brought a bottle home with the intention to eventually do what I could to approximate that unique cocktail. More on that later. First let’s try the whisky on its own.

Here we are, a week and a half after uncapping and four pours into the bottle. These brief notes were taken using a traditional Glencairn.

COLOR – a spectrum of straw, lemon, honey, brass, and orange

NOSE – the grain whisky in use is evident and not at all unpleasant, with butter, cream of wheat, citrus, and a light but grounding vanilla-caramel

TASTE – a nice surprise confectionary baking spice kick up front, then candied grapefruit, candy-store caramel, the grain notes

FINISH – grain, coffee, lemon zest, baking spices, dull metal, wood tannin, grapefruit peel

OVERALL – a light, spicy, grain-forward whisky

Well, it’s not something I’ll be reaching for when I want a thinker. But as a simple drinker, sure. And as a mixer, absolutely! Highball cocktails will be well-served here. But even on its own it offers a surprising amount of spice and citric zing to sparkle up the foundation of grain and caramel notes.

I don’t have much else to say about it. It’s solid and true to its intentions—a good mixer with a bit of extra punch to it.

Okay, so, that cocktail. In lieu of the sherry that Bar High Five used, I selected a Barbadillo Cuco Olororso 12 Year. Nowhere in the US could I track down acorn liqueur of any kind, whether online or my local brick-and-mortar shelves. So I settled for the no doubt very different Nux Alpine Walnut Liqueur. Walnuts and acorns share a bitterness, but really they’re not the same. So this combination won’t ever taste like that Bar High Five cocktail. But it will taste like something!

In my first attempt on the night I uncapped the Riku, I’d used 1.5 ounces of whisky, and 0.25 ounces each of the sherry and walnut liqueur. I tried it in a freezer-chilled coupe, and shaken, not remembering clearly whether it had been shaken or stirred. Based on that photo I took at Bar High Five, I actually suspect it was stirred since there isn’t a substantial amount of fine foamy bubbles on the surface of the drink, only a thin ring gathered around the edges of the glass. You can see the difference compared to the surface of my initial shaken version:

I can’t be certain though.

In any event, the results were underwhelming. Thin, watery flavors, plenty of savory but little sweet.

So for today’s second attempt, I stirred the cocktail and used the classic 2:1:1 ingredient ratio—1 ounce of Riku, 0.5 ounces each of sherry and walnut liqueur. I’m making the cocktails small in order to use less product, given the 500ml size of the Riku bottle. But also I like using the wee coupe I’d bought on my Japan trip at a little place called Sokichi in Asakusa, Tokyo. This time I didn’t freeze-chill the glass, just set it in the fridge.

Better!

Stirred, without the aeration shaking would infuse into it, and with the 2:1:1 ratio allowing more of the sherry and walnut liqueur to come through, the cocktail is now richer, with a more syrupy texture. It tastes heavier than I recall the Bar High Five version being, and a little less balanced. That cocktail had its own unified taste. Here I can taste the sherry and walnut vying amicably for attention.

It’s desserty and dark, with a sweet smokiness to it. That coffee note I got when I tasted the Riku on its own leans forward here with help from the dry sherry and nutty walnut liqueur.

Returning now to the whisky after having had it mixed into the cocktail, the caramel note comes across with greater strength, and the bitter notes I’d previously identified as tannins and coffee now have a rounder nuttiness about them. Still not great. But it doesn’t need to be. And anyway it’s not bad at all.

So glad I brought this bottle home with me!

Kanpai!