Chichibu 2008 – Karenai Hana

Ichiro Akuto built Chichibu in 2008 in a landlocked basin in Saitama, carrying forward a distilling line that ran back through the lost Hanyu distillery. The distillery ferments in washbacks built from Japanese mizunara oak, where native lactobacilli add fruit and a light incense note to the wash. The basin climate swings from humid summers near 35 degrees to winters below freezing, so the casks expand and contract hard and the spirit takes on wood faster than it would in Scotland.

This is unpeated single malt, matured in ex-bourbon American oak. At 10 years, old for a Chichibu, the long wood contact has built structure, ellagitannins giving a dry oak grip beneath the fruit. Ex-bourbon vanillin reads as vanilla and oak lactones as coconut. The spirit character stays fruit forward, apple and pear over a soft, malty body and a gentle spice.

This bottling was distilled in 2008 and bottled in 2019. It is released for Japan. It is the kind of single cask that built the distillery's reputation among collectors in barely more than a decade. At 64.9% it drinks well neat, with water settling the oak.