Chichibu Ichiro's Malt Double Distilleries Pure Malt Whisky

Chichibu Ichiro's Malt Double Distilleries Pure Malt Whisky is a vatting of Hanyu and Chichibu single malts at 46% ABV.

Two generations and two distilleries meet in this bottle. Hanyu was built by Ichiro Akuto's grandfather and sold in 2000 to a Kyoto shochu producer; Akuto managed to rescue just 400 casks of mature whisky from its vaults before the stills were lost. Chichibu, in Saitama, is his own distillery, opened in 2008 and now the most closely watched small operation in Japan. The Hanyu material was traditionally matured in sherry hogsheads while the younger Chichibu distillate saw Japanese oak, and the two are vatted together in Mizunara at Chichibu. Non-chill filtered, with no added colouring.

The delicate sweetness and punchy fruit of the Chichibu malt dovetails with the barley-rich, structured Hanyu. Drink it neat at room temperature with a few drops of water; ice flattens the fruit. Far too scarce to bury in a highball.