Chichibu Ichiro’s Malt (60.6%)

Chichibu sits in a mountain basin in Saitama, northwest of Tokyo, where Ichiro Akuto fired the stills in 2008 under his Venture Whisky company. Wide day to night temperature swings drive the wood interaction, which is why Chichibu reads older than its years suggest. The distillery ferments in washbacks built from Japanese mizunara oak, where native lactobacilli add fruit and a light incense note to the wash.

This is unpeated single malt, matured in ex-bourbon American oak. Without an age statement the cask does the talking, esters and vanillin building fruit and vanilla over a young but quickly matured spirit. 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 release was drawn from the distillery's own stock and bottled in 2019. It is released for Italy. Single casks like this are the heart of the Chichibu name, each one a different reading of the same young, fast matured spirit. At 60.6% it drinks well neat, with water settling the oak. It remains one of the most collected names in modern Japanese whisky.