Akkeshi Distillery Foundations #4 Malt & Grain Spirit

Akkeshi Distillery Foundations #4 Malt & Grain Spirit is a 200ml blend of young malt and grain spirit from eastern Hokkaido.

By the fourth of these small releases the distillery had begun to look at blending, bringing grain spirit alongside its own peated malt to see how the two sat together. That practice runs right through the range today, where the blended bottlings pair Hokkaido malt with grain stock bought as new make and matured in-house. Keiichi Toita, who blends them, has a long career in Japanese whisky behind him, and the house approach leans savoury and coastal, with peat treated as a structural element and not a special effect. Under three years old at bottling, hence spirit on the label.

Lighter and sweeter than the single malts, with cereal, soft toffee and a thread of smoke. Neat at room temperature shows it best, though this is also the one in the series worth putting in a highball, long and very cold.