Ichiro's Malt Chichibu, On the Way
Single Malt Japanese whisky. On the Way was distilled by the Chichibu Distillery, matured in a mix of 3 casks one Mizunara oak hogshead and two Bourbon barrels, and bottled in 2015 at 5 years old, at 55.5% ABV
Bottle No. 242 of 10.700 produced
*In reality, it is not exactly a 5-year-old, because the age shown on a bottle is the age of the youngest single malt used in its composition.
Tasting Notes: peach, honey, hops, fresh citrus, peach jellies, apricot, lightly roasted malt, resin, mate, beautiful oak, pear, citrus peel, cinnamon, buckwheat.
The Distillery
The Akuto family is involved in the production of Sake and Sochu in Chichibu since 1625. In 1980 the family set up a whisky distillery in Hanyu, using the water from Chichibu for its production. Unfortunately, the whisky market was crashing in Japan and the distillery had to be closed in 2000.
After the closure Ichiro used his 400 caks of stock to release the famous Ichiro’s “Card Series”.
In the late 2000’s, Ichiro Akuto started a new chapter in Japan’s whisky history by building Chichibu Distillery, the first new distillery to begin operations in Japan since 1973
Situated in Saitama prefecture around 70km north-west of Tokyo, the production began in February 2008.
The distillery has a small mill, its own mash tun, washesbacks made of Japanese Oak (Mizunara) and a pair of small copper pot stills manufactured by Forsyths of Rothes, Scotland.
Around 10% of the malt used in the Chichibu distillery comes from local growers in Japan, with the rest being produced by Ishiro’s barley farms. Local peat is also used on the peated expressions produced by Chichibu.
Several different cask types are used for maturation including Bourbon, barrels, Sherry butts and Hogsheads, all matured in traditional dunnage-style warehouses.
