Amsterdam Airport Japanese samples

I recently visited South Africa, to visit my mother who has just successfully recovered from a stage 4 cancer diagnosis. GO MOM!!!! I had an incredible time, we visited the Three Ships distillery, which was pretty cool. We also visited the Pilanesburg National Game Park, a 550-square-kilometer area in a crater, where we saw Lion, Cheetah, Elephant, Buffalo, Wildebeest, Rhino, Hippo, Zebra, Giraffe and a bunch of other cool wildlife. On the way there I flew through the Amsterdam airport where I found a pretty cool whisky store that allowed me to buy one-ounce samples of several whiskies I hadn't tried yet for reasonable prices. Below are the Japanese samples I purchased except for Hakushu Peated at 43%.

Disclaimer: I wanted to write these up, but because I was travelling and spending time with family, these samples although thoroughly enjoyed, the following notes are summarized and in shorter form than my other reviews.

The Chita, Single Grain, 43%

Spirit forward, vibrant and floral with the slightest barrel char,  new wooden furniture, some pine needles and fresh grass, the palate is mostly honey and the finish has some pepper and barrel char. The finish is medium in length, and the viscosity is thinner than medium, after about 20 min, some icing sugar appears on the nose.

Hakushu, Distillers Reserve,  43%

Very green and fresh, green grape forward, with attractive fresh herbs. The nose is also perfumey like I would want to be near someone wearing this. Some sugar, and golden honey. There is also something very tropical, like kiwi and honeydew melon. The palate really delivers on all that the nose promises with sparkling white wine notes, melon, kiwi and honey. The viscosity is thin but it seems to match with the way the whisky comes across, so I didn't mind the thinner viscosity at all. The finish is medium in length and soft (not spicy at all). Very moreish. I am curious about what would happen to this at 46% but I admit that I am thoroughly impressed with it where it is. Out of these three whiskies this was the most complex and I enjoyed getting into the depths of this one the most.

The Yamazaki, Peated, 43%

Sweet peated Christmas cake with heather and leather and some very light tobacco. Having recently had Yamazaki 12, I guess I was expecting the same thing but slightly more peated. This is quite heavily peated and very sherried. If I were to compare this to a Scotch, the one I kept thinking of was maybe a sherried Benromach. I enjoy this more than I should. I don't even mind the 43%, again and normally I prefer 50% or above. This is very good. Quite drinkable. The finish is also medium in length, maybe shorter than medium, which makes you go back to the glass more quickly than you might think you are. There's very little that's subtle about this. But the flavours are very balanced and quite round. If I wasn't so impressed with the Hakushu, this would be my number one. And for pour and play value I would rate this as my favourite. Fantastic whisky. 

Also pictured here is the Hakushu Peated Malt (on the right), which I did purchase a sample of as well. However, it was the first one I tried and I didn't enjoy it very much and completely forgot to write it up.