Karuizawa Cask Strength

Karuizawa Cask Strength is a single malt from Karuizawa distillery in Nagano Prefecture, one of the independent-bottler-era releases drawn from stock laid down before the distillery closed in 2000. Bottled for the Taiwan market at a full cask strength of 61.7%, it represents the richly sherried style that transformed Karuizawa's posthumous reputation and made these stocks among the most collected in Japan.

Matured in an Oloroso sherry butt, the whisky carries the deep, concentrated character the distillery was known for: dark dried fruit, bitter chocolate, leather and a savoury meat note that emerges at full strength. Karuizawa used imported Golden Promise barley and small pot stills, and the combination of that distillate with long sherry-cask contact produces a density of flavour rarely matched. Water is recommended to open the glass.