Karuizawa 29 Years Old 1983 Cask #8597 (LMDW)

Karuizawa was a Nagano Prefecture distillery active from 1956 until its closure in 2000 and demolition in 2016. Although the distillery became celebrated mainly for its dense Oloroso-matured releases, its bourbon-cask stocks offer a different register: lighter in colour, brighter in fruit, and driven by vanilla and tropical notes where the sherry releases are defined by dried fruit and leather. Cask #8597 was distilled in 1983, spent 29 years in a Bourbon Cask and was bottled in 2012 by La Maison du Whisky for the French market.

At a high cask strength of 62.1%, the spirit arrives with intensity intact, showing vanilla cream, ripe banana, a thread of orchard fruit and the gentle cereal sweetness that Golden Promise barley tends to contribute. This is one of the more potent bourbon-aged expressions from the 1983 vintage and delivers the pure, uncut character of an Ex-Bourbon Karuizawa single cask.