Chichibu 6 Years Old 2014 Cask #3472 (TWE)

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 make is double distilled in copper pot stills built by Forsyths, from mostly unpeated barley, and matured on site in dunnage warehouses. The distillery ferments in washbacks built from Japanese mizunara oak, where native lactobacilli add fruit and a light incense note to the wash.

This is unpeated single malt, matured in ex-bourbon American oak. At 6 years, helped by an angel's share near double Scotland's, the make tastes older than it is, the esters rounding into stone fruit and the oak settling. Ex-bourbon vanillin reads as vanilla and oak lactones as coconut. The palate leans on tropical and orchard fruit, mango and apple, with a clean cereal note beneath.

This bottling was distilled in 2014, from cask 3472 and bottled in 2020. It is a run of 135 bottles, an event release, bottled by The Whisky Exchange. Releases at this scale sell out quickly, which is part of why Chichibu has become one of the most traded distilleries in the world. At 61.7%, best read neat first, then opened with a little water.