Description
Smoke from smouldering coconut shells wafted through the branches of oak trees, bringing light notes of tobacco and leather. The fragrance of Japanese plum wine intermingled with espresso coffee, apricot pastries and spicy cloves. With a few drops of water from the bubbling spring, layers of sticky jam between vanilla sponge cake beckoned sweet butterscotch, while chocolate-coated nuts danced with tiramisu in an old coal skuttle. The finish was a shrine to complexity, a wondrous amalgamation of tamarind paste, tangy orange sponge, liquorice chocolate and freshly chopped dill. This whisky has had a slightly unconventional story. In early January 2020, 13 casks of whisky distilled at Shinshu distillery in July 2017 were vatted together. Among them, four were new American white oak heavily toasted hogsheads, each able to host approximately 250 litres of whisky, and nine were former bourbon barrels with a capacity of about 200 litres each. On the 11 January 2020, this single malt was used to fill new casks, including this refill American oak heavily toasted hogshead, which hosted the whisky for just over three years before being sent to Scotland in the summer of 2023.