Chichibu 7 Years Old 2013 Cask #3090 (Adelphi)

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. 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. 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. 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. The spirit character stays fruit forward, apple and pear over a soft, malty body and a gentle spice.

This bottling was distilled in 2013, from cask 3090 and bottled in 2023. It is a run of 210 bottles, released for Europe, bottled by Adelphi. From a distillery still in its first generation, bottlings like this show how far Chichibu has come in a short time. At 57.8%, best read neat first, then opened with a little water.