Kanosuke Earth

Kanosuke Earth is a single malt from Kanosuke, Komasa's coastal Kagoshima distillery opened in 2017, drawing on spirit distilled between 2018 and 2020 and bottled in 2024. The Earth name is part of the distillery's elemental release series and this expression is notable for its use of Kokuto shochu casks as a finishing vessel.

Kokuto, or black sugar, is a Kyushu and Okinawa speciality, and the shochu made from it leaves the casks with a distinctive sweet, earthy, molasses-like character. The base spirit was first matured in Ex-Bourbon, then transferred to Kokuto shochu casks, where the regional heritage of Komasa's shochu business meets the distillery's whisky programme. The result layers the black sugar and warm earth of the shochu wood over the bourbon-derived vanilla and fruit softness of the underlying spirit. Bottled at 50%, marking it as cask strength within the standard that applies.