Nagahama 3 Years Old 2017

Nagahama 3 Years Old 2017 is a single malt from Nagahama Distillery, the small pot-still house opened in 2016 beside Lake Biwa in Shiga prefecture. Distilled in 2017 and bottled in 2020 for European markets at 56.2% cask strength, this is a single cask bottling, which means the entirety of its character comes from one barrel rather than a vatting, and at three years it is among the earliest age-stated releases from the distillery.

The cask detail lists a wine cask and a Sweden cask, the latter most likely referring to a cask of Swedish origin, possibly ex-wine or ex-spirit wood. Wine cask maturation at young age gives the spirit good colour and fruit intensity early, with the noted chocolate and citrus profile emerging from the interaction of the distillery's fresh, grain-forward new make with the darker, richer influence of the wine wood. The full cask strength bottling preserves the raw energy of a very young spirit from a small, actively experimental distillery.