Chichibu Single Cask #1431 4 Years Old 2011 (Mizunara)

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 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 Japanese mizunara oak. At 4 years the wood is still giving up its first sugars and spice, vanillin reading as vanilla, with the sharp seasonal swings speeding the exchange. Mizunara lactones give sandalwood and a temple incense note. The spirit character stays fruit forward, apple and pear over a soft, malty body and a gentle spice.

This bottling was distilled in 2011, from cask 1431 and bottled in 2016. It is a run of 282 bottles, an event release. From a distillery still in its first generation, bottlings like this show how far Chichibu has come in a short time. At 61%, best read neat first, then opened with a little water.