Chichibu Thousand Crane Series 7 Years Old 2011

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. The make is double distilled in copper pot stills built by Forsyths, from mostly unpeated barley, and matured on site in dunnage warehouses. 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 a madeira cask. At 7 years, helped by an angel's share near double Scotland's, the make tastes older than it is, the esters rounding into stone fruit and the oak settling. The madeira gives dried apricot and a caramelised nuttiness. 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 1372 and bottled in 2018. It is a run of 242 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. Bottled at 63.7%, natural colour and not chill filtered.