Karuizawa 35 Years Old 1981

Karuizawa, distilling from 1956 at the foot of Mt. Asama in Nagano Prefecture under Mercian, closed in 2000. What remained was a warehouse of maturing casks, now bottled over the years by the owners and independent specialists. This is a single cask from 1981, reaching 35 years of age before bottling in 2017 for the European market, among the later releases from this vintage year.

The cask was an Oloroso sherry cask, consistent with Karuizawa's signature approach of long maturation in Spanish oak. The distillery sourced Golden Promise barley and put its spirit into heavily seasoned sherry wood, building the dark, fruit-laden, leathery character that defined the site. Without a recorded flavour profile for this particular cask, the Karuizawa house style points to dried dark fruit, worn leather and a rich chocolatey depth. Bottled at 56.2% from a single cask.