The Mars Sumo Collection at Club Mareva

Some nights are built to be repeated. This one could not be. On Thursday, June 25, thirteen tasters gathered around the table at Club Mareva for four single casks from the Mars Sumo Collection, bottled by La Maison du Whisky and each named after a winning move from the sumo ring.

The premise was simple and impossible to copy. Every bottle here was distilled at one Mars distillery and matured at another, so the same spirit carries the mark of three Japanese places: the highland of Komagatake in Nagano, the southern heat of Tsunuki in Kagoshima, and the salt air of the island of Yakushima. Two of the four even cross paths in opposite directions. Oshi Dashi was born at Komagatake and sent south to age at Tsunuki, while Uwate Nage was born at Tsunuki and sent up to age at Komagatake. Few collections let you taste geography travel through a single glass. This one did.

We poured in the order that lets the casks tell their own story, from the brightest first nose to the smokiest final dram. All four are single cask, cask strength, and bottled without chill filtration.

01 Yori Kiri. Komagatake distilled, matured at Komagatake in American white oak. The opening dram, pale and direct, clean barley and bright oak spice with nothing to hide behind.

02 Oshi Dashi. Komagatake distilled, matured south at Tsunuki in a bourbon barrel. Softer and rounder, vanilla and light orchard fruit, the warm middle of the flight.

03 Tsuki Otoshi. Komagatake distilled, matured on Yakushima in a sherry hogshead. Eight years old, lightly peated at 20 ppm, a single cask of 201 bottles at 58.4% ABV. The deepest pour of the night, dried fruit and a thread of sweet smoke wound together.

04 Uwate Nage. Tsunuki distilled, matured at Komagatake in a bourbon barrel. Seven years old, heavily peated at 50 ppm, a single cask of 199 bottles. Smoke and salt to finish, the hardest throw saved for last.

At full cask strength the spirit ran hot and tightly wound, several above 58% and one climbing past 62%. Neat, the sheer power closed each glass off. A few drops of water was not optional, it was the key that opened them, loosening the spirit so the fruit, smoke and oak could finally step forward.

These are single casks in the truest sense, each one limited to roughly 200 bottles in the entire world. Tsuki Otoshi gave 201, Uwate Nage just 199. Once a cask is emptied it is gone for good.

The host

Jean Paul Abdallah guided the evening. He worked the room on his feet, tasting sheet in one hand and bottle in the other, setting the sequence and the pace so the table could read each cask for itself, from first nose to final swallow. The order was not decoration. It was the difference between four separate drams and one story told in four chapters.

The room

The lounge filled and stayed full. Glencairn glasses lined the tables on the Mareva Malt Mavericks mats, cigars stayed lit between pours, and the night ran long on conversation. The bottles sat on display beside a sumo print and a Mars set, a small piece of theatre that matched the spirit in the glass.

Why it mattered

Japanese whisky at this level rarely reaches a Beirut table, and almost never four single casks at once from a collection this scarce, with the same distilleries trading roles from one bottle to the next. Thirteen seats. Four casks that will never be repeated. That is the kind of night Club Mareva was built for, and the kind we will keep building.

The Mars Sumo Collection is now part of the room's memory. The next pour is already on its way.


Pictures taken by Angelo Beani.