Karuizawa 1999-2000 Vintages

Karuizawa was a small pot still distillery at the foot of Mt. Asama in Nagano Prefecture, operated by Mercian, which distilled its last spirit in 2000 and was demolished in 2016. The 1999-2000 Vintages series draws from the distillery's final production years, vatting casks from that pair of vintages and releasing them at cask strength across multiple markets over subsequent years. It stands as one of the last opportunities to encounter Karuizawa new-make in recognisable form, bottled by the distillery's custodians and by selected independent bottlers.

The house character at Karuizawa leaned heavily on Spanish Oloroso sherry casks and Golden Promise barley, though the majority of releases in this series were matured in Ex-Bourbon barrels, which frame the spirit's natural richness with vanilla, coconut and dried stone fruit rather than the deeper raisin and chocolate of the sherry-matured variants. Those Oloroso-matured expressions in the range carry the darker profile Karuizawa became known for, with cooked fruit, leather and chocolate. At cask strength throughout, with individual ABVs typically in the 59-62% range, this is the distillery in its most unmediated state.