Product description
Karuizawa Distillery, located in Miyota, at the foot of Mount Asama, began operations in February 1956. Most of its early production went into the inexpensive Ocean line of blends blended by Sanraku Ocean Company, the distillery’s owner at the time. Karuizawa debuted as a whisky brand in July 1976 and was the first Japanese whisky to bear the “single malt” designation. The distillery suspended production on December 31, 2000, never to resume. Karuizawa was a distillery capable of producing just 150,000 liters of spirit per year, and it required a major overhaul and replacement of equipment, and Kirin, which took over its owner’s assets in 2006, was not interested in such an investment. The rest of the inventory, about 360 barrels, was purchased by Number One Drinks Company, most of which it released as single casks. We present here one of them, a whisky distilled on 29th November 1984 and aged for almost three decades in a sherry butt no. 7802. Its contents, on 13th October 2014, amounted to 577 bottles of cask strength whisky (56.7% abv).
Nose: strong sherry notes, blackcurrants, dried plums, cranberries for meat, dried porcini mushrooms, cocoa powder, nutmeg, tobacco, leather, shoe polish, forest floor and polished oak.
Palate : sherry, roasted almonds, dark chocolate, crème brûlée, candied orange peel, licorice, dried dark fruits, a drop of soy sauce, black pepper, dried herbs, notes of peat and oak.
Finish: long, with notes of sherry, dark chocolate, espresso, prunes, salted almonds, black pepper, oak and a touch of peat.