Akkeshi Daikan Blended Japanese Whisky

Akkeshi Daikan Blended Japanese Whisky is a blended whisky from the Akkeshi distillery in eastern Hokkaido.

Greater cold, the last of the twenty-four solar terms of the traditional Japanese calendar, gives this bottling its name, and the depth of winter suits the place. Akkeshi sits on Hokkaido's Pacific coast, where sea fog rolls in through summer and the bay freezes hard in the cold months. The distillery was built in 2016 with Islay in mind. Barley is grown and bought locally, peat is cut nearby, and a share of the spirit matures in Mizunara casks coopered from Hokkaido oak. Blends in this series bring malt together with grain whisky, and blender Keiichi Toita builds each one to read as a season.

The house peat is present but restrained, sitting under malt sweetness, orchard fruit and a coastal saltiness. Try it neat at room temperature first, then with a few drops of water. It makes a clean, smoky highball with plenty of hard ice and good soda.