CHICHIBU - 8 years - Chichibu Single Koshu Wine Cask n°12508 - Bottled 2023 - 62.80%
Ichiro's Malt is an independent Japanese whiskey bottling company. It was created by Ichiro Akuto , in an exceptionally modest premises in Chichibu , a town 100 km northwest of Tokyo, with only two small stills. Akuto's education in whiskey distilling came from the family business. His grandfather was originally a maker and manager of a sake brewery, the Hanyu Distillery, founded in 1625, before he obtained a distiller's license to produce whiskey in 1941. Akuto continued the work his grandfather had started and his passion for whiskey led him to purchase two stills from Scotland that could produce around 400 barrels. In 2000, economic decline in Japan and a reduction in sake consumption forced the family to sell their business. However, Ichiro Akuto turned this potential crisis into an opportunity and reclaimed the stills and barrels of maturing whiskey from the brewery's new owners.
Today, Ichiro Akuto continues to implement the techniques learned over many years at the Hanyu Distillery and is one of the most ambitious Japanese distillers working. Some 4,000 casks of Sherry, wine and Bourbon are currently maturing, while he has begun experiments to grow barley locally, in the hope of producing a truly Japanese whisky.
This edition of Chichibu was distilled in 2015 then aged for 8 years in a single barrel ( #12508) that contained Japanese wine made from the white Koshu grape variety. 274 bottles were produced.
