Chichibu Single Cask #1441 8 Years Old 2011 (Mizunara)

Chichibu is a small Saitama distillery started in 2008 by Ichiro Akuto, founder of Venture Whisky and heir to the Hanyu distilling family. 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. The make is double distilled in copper pot stills built by Forsyths, from mostly unpeated barley, and matured on site in dunnage warehouses.

This is unpeated single malt, matured in Japanese mizunara oak. Around 8 years in, the fruit esters and the wood have married, and the accelerated ageing gives a depth a Scottish whisky might reach much later. Mizunara lactones give sandalwood and a temple incense note. Chichibu's fruit led house character carries throughout, pear and honey balanced by a dry, oaky finish.

This bottling was distilled in 2011, from cask 1441 and bottled in 2019. It is a run of 249 bottles, an event release. Releases at this scale sell out quickly, which is part of why Chichibu has become one of the most traded distilleries in the world. At 59%, best read neat first, then opened with a little water.