Chichibu Ichiro’s Malt – The Highlander Inn 8 Years Old 2010

Ichiro Akuto built Chichibu in 2008 in a landlocked basin in Saitama, carrying forward a distilling line that ran back through the lost Hanyu distillery. 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. Wide day to night temperature swings drive the wood interaction, which is why Chichibu reads older than its years suggest.

This is unpeated single malt, matured in ex-bourbon American oak and finished in an Oloroso sherry cask. At 8 years, helped by an angel's share near double Scotland's, the make tastes older than it is, the esters rounding into stone fruit and the oak settling. Ex-bourbon vanillin reads as vanilla and oak lactones as coconut, while the Oloroso gives dried fruit and a walnut nuttiness. Underneath the wood, the make keeps its clean, fruity core, green apple and stone fruit with a light floral edge.

This bottling was distilled in 2010, from cask 2634 and bottled in 2018. It is a run of 284 bottles, released for Scotland. It is the kind of single cask that built the distillery's reputation among collectors in barely more than a decade. At 59.7% it drinks well neat, with water settling the oak.