Wakatsuru Saburomaru Saburomaru Gyokuto

Saburomaru Gyokuto is a named edition within the Saburomaru range from Wakatsuru Shuzo in Toyama prefecture, and this 2022 release is a 10 Years Old blended malt finished or matured in Mizunara, the porous Japanese oak that delivers its signature sandalwood, incense and temple-wood notes only after extended contact. At 46% and bottled for France, the Gyokuto sits at a more contemplative point in the Saburomaru lineup than the young cask strength vintage series.

Mizunara is an exacting cask: slow to give, prone to leaking and traditionally associated with the long ageing programmes of Japan's larger distilleries. Here, applied to a decade-old blended malt from Saburomaru, it lends the incense and sandalwood register for which it is known, meeting the distillery's peated character with a layer of dried fruit and a soft, aromatic finish. No additional cask detail is recorded, so the Mizunara defines the maturation story. The result is one of the more contemplative expressions in Wakatsuru's catalogue.