Chichibu The Single Cask 5 Years Old 2013

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. 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. The distillery ferments in washbacks built from Japanese mizunara oak, where native lactobacilli add fruit and a light incense note to the wash.

This is unpeated single malt, matured in an Oloroso sherry cask. At 5 years the spirit is in its extractive phase, pulling vanillin, oak lactones and colour quickly from the wood, which the basin's heat and cold drive harder than a cool maritime warehouse would. The Oloroso gives dried fruit and a walnut nuttiness. Chichibu's fruit led house character carries throughout, pear and honey balanced by a dry, oaky finish.

This bottling was distilled in 2013, from cask 2593 and bottled in 2018. It is a run of 306 bottles, released for Germany. Releases at this scale sell out quickly, which is part of why Chichibu has become one of the most traded distilleries in the world. At 49.7% it drinks well neat, with water settling the oak.