Chichibu 8 Years Old 2016 Cask #14044 (LMDW)

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. The distillery ferments in washbacks built from Japanese mizunara oak, where native lactobacilli add fruit and a light incense note to the wash. 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 and finished in a red wine 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 wine lends red berry fruit and a light tannic grip. 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 2016, from cask 14044 and bottled in 2024. It is a run of 268 bottles, released for France, bottled by La Maison du Whisky. Single casks like this are the heart of the Chichibu name, each one a different reading of the same young, fast matured spirit. At 65.5%, best read neat first, then opened with a little water.