Yamazakura Asaka 2017 Cask #17128,17130

Asaka is the whisky distillery of Sasanokawa Shuzo, a Koriyama sake house dating to 1765 that took up whisky again in 2016. Fukushima sits in the Nakadori basin, where summers turn hot and humid and the Bandai Oroshi wind brings hard winter cold, so casks expand and contract sharply and the spirit takes on wood faster than it would in a steadier climate. The distillery also has deep roots in Japanese whisky, having stored Ichiro Akuto's Hanyu casks when that distillery closed.

This bottling vats two ex-bourbon American oak casks filled in 2017, numbers 17128 and 17130, and is unpeated in the Asaka house style. At five years and full strength the wood is well set: vanillin reads as vanilla, oak lactones as coconut, and the spirit's honey, lemon and a light floral note carry through. There is a pepper and oak grip on the finish from the strength.

Bottled at a natural 62% in a run of 475 for an event release, this is one of the older Asaka single malts to reach the market from a distillery still in its first decade. The cask strength rewards water, which opens the citrus and settles the oak. Natural colour throughout.