Chichibu 8 Years Old 2014 Cask #3822 (Adelphi)

In the Saitama mountains northwest of Tokyo, Chichibu has made malt whisky since 2008 under Ichiro Akuto and his Venture Whisky company. The make is double distilled in copper pot stills built by Forsyths, from mostly unpeated barley, and matured on site in dunnage warehouses. The basin climate swings from humid summers near 35 degrees to winters below freezing, so the casks expand and contract hard and the spirit takes on wood faster than it would in Scotland.

This is unpeated single malt, matured in ex-bourbon American oak. At 8 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 body is medium and the fruit clear, baked apple and citrus peel running into a warm, lightly spiced finish.

This bottling was distilled in 2014, from cask 3822 and bottled in 2024. It is a run of 215 bottles, released for Europe, bottled by Adelphi. 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 56.4% it drinks well neat, with water settling the oak.