In the bottle: Overall, at first is appears quite neutral; however, there are some nice floral and ripe fruit notes that show up near the end, with biwa, peach and grape as the most pronounced. In addition to the fruit notes, there is a subtle hint of wet hay that is a bit earthy and gives a little more complexity to what at first seemed quite neutral. The alcohol is very light on the nose and really allows the subtle flavors to shine if you them give chance.

On the rocks: This hits first on the back of the throat with a nice prickly black pepper that quickly spreads across the palate with a lot of the floral and fruity notes that were on the nose. Overall, I feel the the floral, somewhat lavender notes really make this interesting as it matches well with the sharp sweet potato shochu notes, with the finish  

水割り Diluted with water

4:1, 3:2 ratio: This was so nice, I didn't bother to try and water it down, just serve over ice and enjoy.