Hanyu 20 Years Old 1988

Hanyu 20 Years Old 1988 is a single cask single malt distilled in 1988 at the now-closed Hanyu distillery in Saitama Prefecture and bottled in 2008 at cask strength for global distribution. The 20-year maturation ran from Ex-Bourbon into an American oak finishing cask, a trajectory that typically adds vanilla and toasted wood to whatever character built in the hogshead years.

What the tasting data reveals is a cooked vegetable note, a savoury, idiosyncratic character that appears sometimes in older Hanyu releases and speaks to the particular grain and fermentation profile the distillery employed. That distinctiveness, rather than the smooth house-style fruit seen in other expressions, makes this a more polarising but intriguing single cask. At 56% it is direct and unapologetically itself.