Karuizawa 12 Years Old 1999 Cask #867 (LMDW)

Karuizawa was a single malt distillery in Nagano Prefecture that distilled from 1956 until closure in 2000, subsequently demolished in 2016. Its releases have appeared through Number One Drinks and specialist independent bottlers including La Maison du Whisky, who selected and bottled this expression from Cask 867 as a 12 Years Old for an event release in 2011. The 1999 vintage is among Karuizawa's last, distilled in the final year of production before the site fell silent.

The maturation was in an Oloroso sherry butt, the wood that characterised the majority of the distillery's output. Twelve years produced a spirit already dense with dark fruit, prune, mocha and the dried leather Karuizawa reliably expressed through sherry maturation. At 58.9% Cask 867 is a bottling at full strength, with the butt's concentration delivering the intense fruit and savoury depth associated with this ghost distillery.