Karuizawa 42 Years Old 1968 Cask #6955 (LMDW)

Karuizawa distillery in Nagano Prefecture opened in 1956 and closed in 2000, leaving behind a legacy built on its extraordinary sherry cask stock. This single cask, number 6955, was distilled in 1968 and spent 42 years in an Oloroso sherry butt before bottling at cask strength in 2010 for La Maison du Whisky, reaching the French market at 61.1% abv.

The sherry butt is the defining cask type at Karuizawa, and 42 years of Oloroso contact at this level of quality produces a deep, concentrated richness: dark plum and fig preserve, aged leather, mocha and the bitter-sweet depth of long-oxidised sherry. The cask strength format, at just over 61%, brings everything at full intensity: fruit-forward, woody and dense, with the waxy, small-still distillate character weaving through the heavy sherry contribution. A bottling from a 1968 vintage captures the distillery at the height of its production years.