Matsui Shuzo The Matsui Mizunara Cask Cask #MSM-7

The Matsui Mizunara Cask Cask No. MSM-7 is a single cask, cask strength single malt from Matsui Shuzo's distillery in Tottori prefecture, bottled in 2024 at 48% only for the Dutch market. The Matsui range represents the house's own-distillation single malt programme, and this expression showcases mizunara, Japanese oak, maturation in a single-cask presentation. No age statement is given, though the 2024 bottling year places it within the young-to-medium range of the house's current production.

Mizunara, Quercus mongolica, is porous and difficult to cooper, but when given time it imparts sandalwood, incense and a distinctive temple-wood aromatic that is considered a signature of Japanese whisky at its most native. Alongside these incense notes, typical mizunara influence brings coconut and a gentle spice that deepens in the glass. At cask strength 48%, Cask No. MSM-7 delivers the full, uncut character of this unusual wood alongside the distillery's underlying fruit-forward new make. A rare and genuinely Japanese single cask expression from Tottori.