Chichibu 7 Years Old 2012 Cask #2089 (TWE)

Chichibu is a small Saitama distillery started in 2008 by Ichiro Akuto, founder of Venture Whisky and heir to the Hanyu distilling family. Chichibu loses roughly three to five per cent of each cask a year to evaporation, near double the Scottish rate, so a young whisky here carries the depth of a much older one. 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 ex-bourbon American oak. Around 7 years in, the fruit esters and the wood have married, and the accelerated ageing gives a depth a Scottish whisky might reach much later. Ex-bourbon vanillin reads as vanilla and oak lactones as coconut. Chichibu's fruit led house character carries throughout, pear and honey balanced by a dry, oaky finish.

This bottling was distilled in 2012, from cask 2089 and bottled in 2019. It is a run of 349 bottles, released for UK, bottled by The Whisky Exchange. From a distillery still in its first generation, bottlings like this show how far Chichibu has come in a short time. At 60.8% it drinks well neat, with water settling the oak.