Chichibu 10 Years Old 2015 Cask #4415 (BB&R)

The Chichibu distillery was founded in 2008 by Ichiro Akuto, whose family had distilled at the closed Hanyu plant, and works on a small scale in the Saitama mountains. The make is double distilled in copper pot stills built by Forsyths, from mostly unpeated barley, and matured on site in dunnage warehouses. Production is small, around a third of a million litres a year, with floor malting done by hand on occasion and every stage run under one roof.

This is unpeated single malt, matured in a pinot noir wine cask. Ten years and more is a serious age for this distillery, the ellagitannins lending tannic structure and the esters now deep and layered. The wine gives light red cherry and berry. Chichibu's fruit led house character carries throughout, pear and honey balanced by a dry, oaky finish.

This bottling was distilled in 2015, from cask 4415 and bottled in 2025. It is a run of 211 bottles, released for Europe, bottled by Berry Bros & Rudd. It is the kind of single cask that built the distillery's reputation among collectors in barely more than a decade. At 65.2%, best read neat first, then opened with a little water.