Akkeshi Distillery Kanro Single Malt Japanese Whisky

Akkeshi Distillery Kanro Single Malt Japanese Whisky is a peated Hokkaido single malt from the distillery's 24 Sekki series.

Cold dew is the English for the solar term behind the name, an October marker when mornings on the Hokkaido coast begin to bite. The 24 Sekki series takes its names from the traditional Japanese division of the year into twenty-four short seasons, and each release is built to carry something of the term it belongs to. Distilling here has gone on since 2016, in a fishing town on the island's Pacific edge, using barley grown on Hokkaido, peat cut locally and a mix of ex-bourbon, sherry and Mizunara wood. The maritime setting is not decoration: fog, salt air and hard winters all show up in the glass.

Dry peat, malt loaf and a citrus lift, finishing salty and long. Pour it neat at room temperature and give it a minute in the glass. A single drop of water lengthens it. If you are mixing, keep it to a smoky highball with hard ice.