Chichibu 7 Years Old 2015 Cask #5418 (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. 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 2015, from cask 5418 and bottled in 2022. It is a run of 106 bottles, an event release, bottled by The Whisky Exchange. Each cask is bottled on its own terms, a snapshot of how a particular wood shaped the Saitama spirit. At 59.5%, best read neat first, then opened with a little water.