Asaka Kōriyama

Asaka is the whisky distillery of Sasanokawa Shuzo, a sake house in Koriyama, Fukushima, that dates to 1765 and took a whisky licence in 1946 before refitting the Asaka site in 2016. This release is named for Koriyama itself, the city at the centre of Fukushima where the distillery stands, fed by soft meltwater off the Bandai mountains and Lake Inawashiro. It is one of the few bottlings to carry the Asaka name rather than the Yamazakura brand.

A blend of Asaka malt with grain whisky, aged in ex-bourbon American oak and bottled at a gentle 40%. The grain softens the malt into an easy, approachable style: ex-bourbon vanillin reads as vanilla, the grain lends a clean cereal sweetness, and Asaka's honey and light citrus carry over the top. There is no peat here, in keeping with the distillery's clean house character.

At 40% this is built as an everyday blend rather than a collector's bottle, released for the French market. It suits long drinks and mixing as much as a neat pour, light and soft throughout. A straightforward introduction to the Asaka distillery under its own name. A gentle, sessionable introduction to Fukushima whisky.