Hanyu 11 Years Old 2000

Hanyu 11 Years Old 2000 is a single cask single malt distilled in 2000 at the closed Hanyu distillery in Saitama Prefecture and bottled in 2011 at cask strength by Ichiro Akuto. As a 2000 vintage expression, it comes from the distillery's final year of production before Toa Shuzo closed the site, making this among the youngest spirit to emerge from that closing period.

The maturation followed Ex-Bourbon ageing with a finish in a mizunara heads hogshead. Heads refers to the stave-ends of the Japanese oak cask, which offer a more intense and direct wood contact than the barrel walls, concentrating the mizunara's sandalwood, incense and subtle coconut character into the spirit over a relatively short finishing period. At 59.4% cask strength from an 11-year maturation, this is one of the more youthfully vigorous Hanyu single casks, with Japanese oak fragrance overlaying the fresh, unmediated distillate character of the 2000 vintage.