Chichibu Ichiro's Malt Mizunara Wood Reserve 70cl

Chichibu Ichiro's Malt Mizunara Wood Reserve 70cl

The origin of the single malts that make up Ichiro's Malt Mizunara Wood Reserve is not officially disclosed, but like the double distilleries, they probably come from Hanyu and Chichibu. This pure malt, bottled without chill filtration, was, as its name suggests, matured in Mizunara barrels, the famous Japanese oak. The specific influence of this precious wood is remarkable.

Ichiro's Malt Mizunara Wood Reserve

The Ichiro's Malt brand is produced by Japanese firm, Venture Whisky, and is named after their founder, Ichiro Akuto. Venture Whisky was established in 2004 after Ichiro acquired the remaining unblended stocks of single malt from his grandfather's Hanyu distillery. Ichiro's Malt was born the following year, with the release of the original 'Card' series single casks of Hanyu. The company then opened its own distillery in 2008, the increasingly sought-after Chichibu. In addition to bottling these two single malts, the Ichiro's Malt brand has also produced a number of sought after blended whiskies like this over the years.

Rumoured to be a vatting of the closed Japanese distillery of Hanyu with that of the relatively young distillery of Chichibu, where this whisky was matured, married and bottled. The whiskies were matured in Mizunara oak casks (rare Japanese oak).

Given that this was first released in 2010 and and Hanyu has become thinner on the ground since, we can only assume the Hanyu content has or will eventually be removed. When that will happen or if it has already happened is unclear.

TASTING NOTES

Colour: Deep Gold, Amber

Nose: Quite dense with lots of honey, and also freshly sawn oak and sawdust (IKEA furniture assembly vibes), there’s also some initial varnish that is a bit solvent-y.

Better give it some time, more mandarin candies, candied plums, some orchard fruits of apples and apricots, with some white florals. There’s also some surrounding bread-y notes of dough, as well as some black tea and maple syrup, lightly tangy but syrupy sweet and spiced with some cloves. Last bits of ginger candy and marzipan.

Palate: A little more apparent incense notes here, lightly ashy and of musty wood, it’s almost like aromatic woody ash, texturally almost gritty and slightly thin. There’s also honey, caramel, more of that polished wood, with some vanilla, pout pourri, ever so slightly of apple tea and coffee grounds. It’s quite aromatic, but at the same time somewhat tannic and bitter belying the honey sweetness.

Finish: As if it couldn’t get more aromatic, it does! More of that gritty but aromatic sandy incense note, here a more apparent bit of coconut flakes, which eventually recede into a light bitterness and drying quality.

46% ABV

70cl

*DUE END JULY 2024*