Akkeshi Distillery Foundations #2 Bourbon Barrel Single Malt Spirit

Akkeshi Distillery Foundations #2 Bourbon Barrel Single Malt Spirit is a 200ml release of young single malt matured in ex-bourbon wood.

It is labelled spirit because it had not yet spent the three years in cask that the word whisky requires. This was the second of the Foundations releases and the first to put a single cask type in the title. Ex-bourbon barrels are the workhorse of the industry for good reason: American oak gives vanilla, coconut and a sweet edge that suits peated malt well. The warehouses sit on the eastern Pacific coast of Hokkaido, where summer fog and a deep winter freeze make for slow, uneven maturation. Small bottles like this one were the distillery's way of releasing work in progress honestly.

Vanilla and toasted malt lead, with peat smoke behind and a clean, spirity lift to close. Room temperature, neat, in a small glass. There is enough sweetness to sit in a highball with plenty of ice if you want to stretch it out.