Chichibu Intergalactic Series – Edition 1 7 Years Old 2012

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. 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. By 7 years the spirit and oak have started to integrate, rougher notes softening as esters build into orchard and tropical fruit. Ex-bourbon vanillin reads as vanilla and oak lactones as coconut. 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 2012, from cask 2112 and bottled in 2019. It is a run of 182 bottles, released for Netherlands. From a distillery still in its first generation, bottlings like this show how far Chichibu has come in a short time. At 63.5% it drinks well neat, with water settling the oak.