Chichibu Single Cask #7081 8 Years Old 2016 (Ex-Bourbon)

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. Wide day to night temperature swings drive the wood interaction, which is why Chichibu reads older than its years suggest. 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. By 8 years the spirit and oak have started to integrate, rougher notes softening as esters build into orchard and tropical fruit. 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 2016, from cask 7081 and bottled in 2024. It is a run of 191 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%, best read neat first, then opened with a little water.