Karuizawa 8 Years Old

Karuizawa was a tiny single malt distillery set at the foot of the active Mt. Asama volcano in Nagano Prefecture, run by Mercian. It operated from 1956 until its closure in 2000 and was demolished in 2016, leaving a finite and increasingly scarce pool of casks. This 8 Years Old release, bottled at 40% abv for the European market, sits at the younger end of the distillery's output.

Matured in Ex-Bourbon casks, the whisky takes on old wood, earthy vegetative character and a lightly yeasty quality that reflects the early years on American oak. Karuizawa was better known for its heavily sherried older releases, so this bourbon-matured example offers a different angle on the distillery's spirit, one that is lighter in colour and drier in tone than the signature oloroso profile.