Yamazakura Asaka Peated Cask #19152

Asaka, the whisky distillery of the Koriyama sake house Sasanokawa Shuzo, is best known for a clean, unpeated and fruity malt, so a peated single cask is the exception rather than the rule. The distillery refitted for whisky in 2016 and works in Fukushima's Nakadori basin, where sharp seasonal swings and the Bandai Oroshi wind push young spirit hard into the wood. This cask was filled in 2019 from peated distillate.

Matured four years in a single ex-bourbon American oak cask, this leads with peat: phenols give thick ash, charcoal and a lit cigar note, while ex-bourbon vanillin reads as smoked vanilla and the spirit keeps Asaka's orchard apple and warm honey beneath. At 63.5% it is powerful and a little raw, the smoke and oak set against tropical fruit and ginger on the finish.

Bottled at a natural 63.5% in a run of just 240 for an event release, it shows a side of Asaka few of its bottlings reach. Water gives more balance and brings up the ash, though it holds up well at full strength. Natural colour, not chill filtered, and built for slow drinking. Peated Asaka is uncommon, and single casks like this rarely stay long on the shelf.