Karuizawa 29 Years Old 1984 Cask #3663 (TWE)

Karuizawa was a single malt distillery in Nagano Prefecture, producing whisky from 1956 until its closure in 2000, with the site demolished in 2016. Mercian ran the distillery using small pot stills and imported Golden Promise barley, and its policy of using Oloroso sherry casks as primary maturation vessels defined its signature style. Cask #3663 was distilled in 1984, laid into a First Fill Oloroso Sherry Cask and matured for 29 years before being bottled in 2013 by The Whisky Exchange for the UK market at 56.8% cask strength.

The first-fill wood ensures the highest level of sherry extraction, producing a whisky of deep amber colour with intensely concentrated dried fruit, dark cherry, fruitcake and rich leather. Three decades in the cool Nagano mountain climate have given the spirit both density and integration, with the wood's influence fully absorbed into the malt rather than sitting on top of it. This is Karuizawa's richest style expressed at its most direct.