Chichibu Taiwan Edition 2019

Chichibu is a small Saitama distillery started in 2008 by Ichiro Akuto, founder of Venture Whisky and heir to the Hanyu distilling family. 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. 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. By 7 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 spirit character stays fruit forward, apple and pear over a soft, malty body and a gentle spice.

This bottling was distilled in 2012 and bottled in 2019. It is a run of 576 bottles, released for Taiwan. Each cask is bottled on its own terms, a snapshot of how a particular wood shaped the Saitama spirit. At 50.2%, best read neat first, then opened with a little water. It remains one of the most collected names in modern Japanese whisky.