Karuizawa 50 Years Old 1965 Cask #8636 (LMDW)

Karuizawa distillery in Nagano Prefecture operated from 1956 until its closure in 2000, with the demolished site leaving a finite pool of casks now spread across collectors and specialist bottlers worldwide. This single cask, number 8636, was distilled in 1965 and bottled in 2016 for La Maison du Whisky at cask strength, releasing it for the French market at 62.6% abv after 50 years in Ex-Bourbon wood.

While Karuizawa's fame rests largely on its sherry casks, this Ex-Bourbon expression shows the other side of the distillery's archive. Fifty years in American oak turns the spirit into something rounder and more waxy: deep vanilla, tallow, old leather and the subtle incense-like quality that emerges from very long contact between Japanese whisky and old wood. The cask strength proof preserves the full intensity of that half-century of slow mountain maturation in Nagano, making this a rare bourbon-cask counterpoint to the sherry canon.