Chichibu Single Cask #2352 9 Years Old 2009 (White Wine)

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 a white wine cask. Around 9 years in, the fruit esters and the wood have married, and the accelerated ageing gives a depth a Scottish whisky might reach much later. The wine gives crisp green apple and a light floral lift. On the palate the Chichibu signature shows through: bright orchard fruit, a clean citrus lift and a thread of wildflower honey.

This bottling was distilled in 2009, from cask 2352 and bottled in 2018. It is a run of 245 bottles, released for Netherlands. From a distillery still in its first generation, bottlings like this show how far Chichibu has come in a short time. At 63.1%, best read neat first, then opened with a little water.