Asaka Yamazakura Peated

The Yamazakura brand comes from the Asaka distillery of Sasanokawa Shuzo, a Koriyama sake house trading since 1765 that returned to whisky in 2016. Yamazakura, written for the mountain cherry, is the house label, and its blends combine Asaka's own malt with grain and malt whiskies sourced from beyond Japan. This is the peated version of that blend, leaning smoky where the standard release leans floral.

Aged around three years in a mix of first fill bourbon, Oloroso and Pedro Ximenez sherry casks, it balances smoke against sweetness. The peated malts give a lightly smoked caramel and a phenolic, peaty finish, ex-bourbon vanillin reads as vanilla, and the sherry brings stewed fruit and a nutty depth, with Asaka's cereal and citrus running through. The smoke is present but well mannered rather than fierce.

Bottled at 46% for Europe, this is an affordable and approachable way into peated Japanese whisky, from a maker whose core style is unpeated. It drinks easily neat or long, the peat sitting under the caramel and yellow fruit. Natural presentation in the brand's plain, cherry marked livery.