Karuizawa 1988 (Finest Whisky)

Karuizawa distillery in Nagano Prefecture opened in 1956, closed in 2000 and was demolished in 2016. Operated by Mercian with small pot stills and Golden Promise barley, it built its reputation on long ageing in Spanish Oloroso sherry casks. This NAS release carries a 1988 vintage date, placing distillation in one of the distillery's active decades, and was bottled at cask strength 57.9% by the German independent Finest Whisky.

The maturation vessel is a refill sherry butt, meaning the cask had already yielded some of its primary sherry character to an earlier fill. The influence is therefore subtler than a first-fill would deliver: dried fruit, a trace of orange peel and the aged leather that defines Karuizawa, underlined by the distillery's own rich, malty base. A rare opportunity to taste a long-rested vintage from a distillery that no longer exists.