Chichibu Malt Dream Cask 10 Years Old 2008 (60.8%)

In the Saitama mountains northwest of Tokyo, Chichibu has made malt whisky since 2008 under Ichiro Akuto and his Venture Whisky company. Production is small, around a third of a million litres a year, with floor malting done by hand on occasion and every stage run under one roof. Chichibu loses roughly three to five per cent of each cask a year to evaporation, near double the Scottish rate, so a young whisky here carries the depth of a much older one.

This is unpeated single malt, matured in ex-bourbon American oak. At 10 years, old for a Chichibu, the long wood contact has built structure, ellagitannins giving a dry oak grip beneath the fruit. Ex-bourbon vanillin reads as vanilla and oak lactones as coconut. Chichibu's fruit led house character carries throughout, pear and honey balanced by a dry, oaky finish.

This bottling was distilled in 2008, from cask 180 and bottled in 2018. It is a run of 183 bottles, released for Japan. It is the kind of single cask that built the distillery's reputation among collectors in barely more than a decade. At 60.8% it drinks well neat, with water settling the oak.