Chichibu Ichiro's Malt The Peated Whisky 2022

Chichibu Ichiro's Malt The Peated is a cask-strength peated single malt from Saitama, bottled at 53.5% ABV.

Nearly everything that comes off the stills at Chichibu is unpeated and made from Norfolk barley; peated new make is distilled in a short window in the final month before the distillery shuts for maintenance, which is why these releases appear so seldom. This one followed a four-year gap, the previous bottling having marked the distillery's tenth anniversary in 2018. Maturation ran five to seven years in ex-bourbon barrels and it goes into bottle at cask strength, undiluted. Ichiro Akuto founded the distillery in 2008, and demand has outrun supply every year since.

At this strength water helps: start neat, then add drops until the smoke settles back into the malt. The peat is restrained — earthy, faintly medicinal — over bourbon-cask vanilla. An after-dinner dram, and mixing it would be a waste.