Akkeshi Shosho Blended Japanese Whisky

Akkeshi Shosho Blended Japanese Whisky is a blended whisky named for the solar term at the end of summer's heat.

The end of the heat falls in late August, though on the Hokkaido coast the real marker is the lifting of the sea fog that sits over Akkeshi Bay all summer. The town is an oyster port first and a whisky town second, and the distillery has made a virtue of that: cold, damp, salty and a long way from anywhere. For the blends, grain spirit is bought as new make and matured in the distillery's own warehouses alongside the peated Hokkaido malt, so every component ages in one place and one climate.

Gentle smoke over caramel, cereal and baked apple, with the saline snap of the house on the close. Neat suits it, no ice. It is also the sort of blend that makes an excellent highball: tall glass, hard ice, cold soda, a twist of lemon if you like.