Nagahama Single Cask #1562 4 Years Old 2018 (Bordeaux, Sauternes)

Nagahama Single Cask 1562 is a single malt from Nagahama Distillery, the small pot-still operation opened in 2016 beside Lake Biwa in Shiga prefecture. Distilled in 2018, matured for four years and bottled in 2022 at 53% for the European market, it is a single cask expression defined entirely by its wine wood maturation, which makes it one of the more distinctive bottlings from the distillery's early output.

The cask is a combination of Bordeaux and Sauternes wine wood. Bordeaux casks, previously used for dry red wines, contribute tannin, dark red fruit and a certain vinous grip, while Sauternes barrels, from the sweet white wine region of Bordeaux, add honeyed sweetness, apricot and lighter stone fruit. The interplay of a dry red wine influence against a luscious sweet wine base is an unusual and intriguing combination for whisky maturation, giving the spirit a layered fruity complexity not achievable from grain wood alone. At 53% and fully from wine casks, this is a bold wine-forward expression of what Nagahama's Shiga distillery can do.