Nine Leaves Angel's Half American Oak 3 Year Old (2020)
Japan is a country which in a way exemplifies the culture around rum in Asia on an advanced scale. It is not a popular drink, and whiskey dominates spirits discourse almost universally. However, this is not a surprise. Despite sugarcane entering Japan as early as the eighth century during the Nara period, it was not widely consumed until recently. Most Japanese sweets even to this day do not use much sugar, and sugar often finds its place in more savory applications. In place of cane sugar, the Japanese have long preferred honey, mizuame, and sweet syrups made from various plants such as amazuru. This does not mean sugar was not a well respected substance; however, its production was entirely limited to Okinawa prefecture and the southern range of Kagoshima. It is there where the local people made a family of distilled beverages called shōchū, which combined rice, cane, and a motley of grains. It is also in Okinawa where kokutō, a jaggery like substance, is made from heating and condensing down cane juice until it is a very dark brown, almost black color. In essence, it is a brown sugar. This is a very different source material from either the molasses or cane juice used in most rums. The brown sugar is often mixed with water to create a fermentation base or wash of sorts.
This brings us to Yoshiharu Takeuchi. Born to a family of automotive manufacturers, he had no prior experience with the world of spirits. In a way, this perhaps parallels the journey of many sprits enthusiasts around the world - many incidentally stumbled upon their passion. He led a one man operation in which he handled almost if not entirely all aspects of the production cycle. Takeuchi-san wanted to originally work in the world of Japanese whiskey but perhaps he found that to be an oversaturated domain with a lot of competition. A man seeking uniqueness and an idiosyncratic environment, he settled on rum, a spirit which does not get much attention in Japan or Asia in general for that matter aside from mass market swill or a mere mixing ingredient. That is to not say that there are not high quality Japanese rums, such as from Helios distillery and their “Teeda” rum. However, the category just does not gain much traction in Japan. Back in the 2010s when craft distilleries were popping up everywhere, in a way Takeuchi-san had the perfect storm to essentially pioneer a microdistillery in a cave of sorts underneath a company building. He could use the water from the caves of Otsu in Shiga prefecture for his production, and the caverns could exemplify an exercise of sorts in analyzing a different form of terroir influence when it came to aging. Now this brings us back to kokutō, which Takeuchi-san settled on as he felt it was a nice intermediate between the fresh yet harsh character of cane juice rums (à la rhum agricole) but also with more character, sharpness, and dimension than a molasses based rum. Unlike cane juice but like molasses, the jaggery like substance would not go bad, but it also would bring a difference relative to the wide and spread out molasses based rums of the world. Fervently motivated, Takeuchi-san imported a Forsyth copper pot still from Scotland and commenced his craft. He played around with several different casks and blends, and it was from here he was able to extract a plethora of well-made, flavorful yet young rums. Takeuchi-san did not focus on age so much as a well made distillate and blends made from different cask aged expressions. And that brings me to the Angel’s Half series. The bottle I have was aged for three years starting being distilled in 2017 and bottled in 2020. It was aged in American Oak, and the Angel’s Half refers to half of the series being aged in American Oak and half being aged in French Oak.
The first thing that took me aback was how whiskey-like the nose is, in particular bourbon or even a blended scotch. There is a generic fruit character, perhaps an old apple or pear, accompanied by a sour apple or sour candied apple presence. However, I likewise get notes that remind me of Mexican charanda. There is a lot of brine, umami, seaweed, parsley, etc. An umami blend of herbs if you will. I get a little bit of salted caramel, and there is a woody oak substance permeating the experience. Periodically, I get some heavier oak and a little vanilla. The nose is certainly not bad, but if I have to be honest, it doesn’t really remind me of rum. Perhaps this is a result of the more temperate aging climate, the milder underground caverns of Honshu; perhaps this is the result of the source material (jaggery); or perhaps this is the result of the interaction with the American Oak. I can’t say for certain as this is my first time trying a jaggery rum, let alone a Japanese rum or at that a Nine Leaves product. Due to the practical extinction of the company at this rate, we most likely will not get any more releases unfortunately unless someone rekindles the distillery. For now, what we do have is exorbitant and physically elusive bottles on the second market, which is a damn shame.
The palate mostly follows the nose. You get some musty fruit (apple) with iodine, oak, and caramel. I get the parsley and seaweed element likewise. There is a bit of leather too. This is not a bland spirit by any means, accented by the 50% ABV which is very much appreciated. It appears looking at all the Nine Leaves expressions out there, Takeuchi-san certainly was an appreciator of higher proof. However, I feel as if there is something missing from the spirit as a whole. Again, I am reminded of bourbons and blended scotch moreso than rum, which is an issue as when I want to drink rum, I want rum. Even the most unusual rums out there have a rummy character, but this doesn’t strike me as rum at all for some reason. I am sure if I handed this to my acquaintances who like a good bourbon or scotch, they may even appreciate it far more than I do. Note, I am not a whiskey drinker by any means, so do take my words with a grain of salt.
This is certainly not a poorly made spirit by any means, but I just wonder how it became so far removed from rum. The finish is also not particularly rummy either, giving me even more of a whiskey-like impression. I get a little bit of tobacco, oak, and some sweetness. If I dig for it, I even get a little bit of nuttiness, but not much. Honestly, I can’t deny that I am disappointed.
Now we need to ask: why does it taste as so? Well, there are many ways we can tackle this question. Having not tried the unaged distillate, it is possible the raw rum tastes fairly whiskey-like itself. However, let’s keep this in the back of our mind for now. With my research, it seems the Angel’s Half series most likely utilized ex-bourbon instead of virgin American oak. This is somewhat of an important detail, but rums are aged all the time in ex-bourbon casks and don’t end up tasting this whiskey like. Were it virgin American Oak, then we could consider an element of the oak overpowering the young distillate. Then another possibility is that the temperate aging of the rum, as opposed to the more tropical/subtropical character in which most rums are aged in, yielded a milder rum with more briney and scotch-like tastes. That is not to say what we have is a peat bomb, by no means is it that. However, the light aging combined with the temperate climate might have contributed to a fairly delicate and not as robust rum. That said, we have seen similar rums from other parts of the world that don’t necessarily result in such a profile. This brings us back to the first point: it is possible the unaged distillate is perhaps quite delicate and on top of that, this is perhaps inspired by its jaggery origins.
A fellow rum enthusiast I follow on YouTube, Arminder from The Rum Revival, noted how the Amrut Bella rum, which is also made from jaggery, reminded him much of scotch rather than rum. It is possible, then, we can formulate a hypothesis that the jaggery source for the distillate is contributing to a whiskey taste. Perhaps the mellower elements of the unaged distillate, combined with the barrel aging, has created a neutral whiskey like spirit that doesn’t offer much to the table in a discerning aspect. It is possible this applies to the Nine Leaves, as well. Kokutō is merely another jaggery product at the end of the day; therefore, I hypothesize that jaggery in some manner removes elements that we eventually associate with “rumminess.” This is further strengthened by the use of cask aging. We have a fairly neutral base interacting with a relative to itself powerful ex-bourbon cask which contributes to a neutral, mellow tasting spirit reminiscent ultimately of whiskey moreso than rum. This will require more of an academic deep dive, but for now, our initial hypothesis shall suffice.
Of course, this is not to say the spirit is a bad drink in any fashion. It is quite well made, but it is just not for me. I want more of a discernibly “rummy” character out of my rums. Even exotic rums such as the Novo Fogo Tanager have managed to achieve that. Not Nine Leaves, though. If I can get my hands on them, I am curious to try other Nine Leaves expressions, but for now I don’t think I will go out of my way for them given how expensive and hard to find they are at this rate.
I highly admire Yoshiharu Takeuchi’s dedication to his craft, and I was so inspired by his meticulous approach, that I even named my website after the base material he used, kokutō, representing an ambiguous boundary between cane juice and molasses which offers many opportunities for permutability. The clouds invigorating the idea of condensing cane juice into a dream-like substance, full of ambition and wonder that invokes us every time we try a new rum. That continuum perpetually inspires us, alongside Kaizen, which engenders us to fixate on the more minute, principle aspects of life as an attempt to contribute to overall success.
My final score might seem harsh or low, but do not feel this means I disvalue what Takeuchi-san has achieved. I just cannot recommend this rum to someone who is seeking rum, be it cane juice or molasses. In a way, it exists in this grey area where I cannot rate it too low because of how well made it is, but I cannot rate it too high either because it fails to hit marks I expected from a well made rum. This is disappointing to say the least, but this does not mean the future is bleak for either jaggery or Japanese rums, and in the case of the former, I am motivated to seek out an academic scope that helps substantiate thereof into something more profound, hence the namesake of my blog.
Aging does not always mean flavor, but based on what I have seen people say about the Encrypted Series of Nine Leaves, which included four different expressions, it is possible those may satisfy my palate moreso than the Angel’s Half, as they have been aged longer and using a blend encompassing a variety of different casks including PX, Oloroso, various wine barrels, etc. alongside ex-bourbon casks. However, as stated before, I will not go out of my way for these as they are quite expensive and scarce; moreover, even if I wanted to seek them out, I must do so with caution anyhow as I don’t want to be sourly disappointed again. It is very possible my views on the rum won’t change that much more. The cost risk analysis would most likely weigh in favor against such a steep purchase.
Trying out the white Nine Leaves might suffice more for the sake of academic pursuit. It is, again, very possible the particular interactions between the base, unaged distillate and a particular sequence of barrel aging is leading to the profile we ultimately see in the rum. After all, this would be protogenesis of the spirit, and we would be able to better bookkeep and predict the eventual flavor profile. Perhaps one could conduct a series of home aging tests in various mini wood barrels and see what they get, and how it compares to the Nine Leaves expressions currently in circulation. Eventually, with the termination of the distillery and each and every bottle out there being perhaps the last few amongst its kind, such an exercise would eventually become a form of experimental or speculative booze archaeology.
You can watch Arminder’s video here.
Final Rating: 79/100