Chichibu Ichiro’s Malt – Modern Malt Whisky Market 4 Years Old 2010

In the Saitama mountains northwest of Tokyo, Chichibu has made malt whisky since 2008 under Ichiro Akuto and his Venture Whisky company. 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. Wide day to night temperature swings drive the wood interaction, which is why Chichibu reads older than its years suggest.

This is unpeated single malt, matured in ex-bourbon American oak. Only 4 years old, it leans on early wood extraction, vanillin and oak lactones to the fore, though Chichibu's fast maturation gives it more weight than the age implies. 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 2010, from cask 706 and bottled in 2014. It is a run of 337 bottles, released for Japan. From a distillery still in its first generation, bottlings like this show how far Chichibu has come in a short time. At 63.4% it drinks well neat, with water settling the oak.