Mars Shinshu is Japan's highest whisky distillery, sitting at around 800 metres in the Central Alps of Nagano Prefecture, where the Kiso mountains gather snow in winter and cold, clean water feeds the stills. The Hombo family's Mars brand has had a stop-start relationship with whisky since the 1940s, with the Shinshu distillery itself opening in 1985, falling silent, and then being reawakened in 2011 to meet the new global appetite for Japanese malt.
Maltage Cosmo is a blended malt, which is to say a marriage of malt whiskies with no grain component, and it combines Mars Shinshu's own spirit with malt sourced from Scotland. It is an approach that raises eyebrows among purists but has a long and honest pedigree in Japanese blending, and in this case it produces a whisky with a wider shoulder than Mars Shinshu could manage alone.
The nose is all orchard fruit and honey, red apple leading the way, dried apricot following, and a clean lift of pine resin that feels distinctly alpine. On the palate there is malted biscuit and that same orchard character, a creamy mid-palate, raisin sweetness from what is clearly some sherry-cask influence, and a gentle spice that warms without biting. The finish is medium, drying gently towards oak, with a cool freshness at the end that recalls the mountain air itself.
It is an elegant, balanced bottle, and at 43% it delivers plenty of flavour without ever becoming heavy. A fine introduction to the Mars house style.
