Chichibu 7 Years Old 2014 Cask #3351 (BB&R)

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. Wide day to night temperature swings drive the wood interaction, which is why Chichibu reads older than its years suggest. 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.

This is unpeated single malt, matured in ex-bourbon American oak. At 7 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. Underneath the wood, the make keeps its clean, fruity core, green apple and stone fruit with a light floral edge.

This bottling was distilled in 2014, from cask 3351 and bottled in 2021. It is a run of 213 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. Bottled at 57.6%, it rewards a drop of water to open the fruit.