Karuizawa 30 Years Old 1984

Karuizawa was a single malt distillery in Nagano Prefecture, producing whisky from 1956 until closure in 2000, with the site demolished in 2016. Operated by Mercian with small pot stills and imported Golden Promise barley, the distillery placed the bulk of its production into Oloroso sherry casks, producing deeply coloured, richly sherried single malts that have grown to define the ghost distillery category in Japan. This official bottling was distilled in 1984, matured for 30 years in an Oloroso Sherry Cask and released by the distillery itself in 2014 for the Japanese home market in the traditional 750ml format.

At cask strength 61.4% after three full decades in Oloroso wood, the spirit shows the full concentration of Karuizawa's typical character: dark dried fruit, fruitcake, leather, bitter chocolate and a warm, lingering spice. As a home-market official bottling in the 750ml format, this represents the distillery releasing its mature estate stock directly to the Japanese collector market in the years following its closure.