Chichibu The Game 6 Years Old 2011

The Chichibu distillery was founded in 2008 by Ichiro Akuto, whose family had distilled at the closed Hanyu plant, and works on a small scale in the Saitama mountains. Wide day to night temperature swings drive the wood interaction, which is why Chichibu reads older than its years suggest. 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 a madeira cask. By 6 years the spirit and oak have started to integrate, rougher notes softening as esters build into orchard and tropical fruit. The madeira gives dried apricot and a caramelised nuttiness. On the palate the Chichibu signature shows through: bright orchard fruit, a clean citrus lift and a thread of wildflower honey.

This bottling was distilled in 2011, from cask 1370 and bottled in 2017. It is a run of 260 bottles, released for Japan. From a distillery still in its first generation, bottlings like this show how far Chichibu has come in a short time. Bottled at 61.3%, natural colour and not chill filtered.