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The long-awaited full bottle. This is the fifth season of whisky production in the town of Akkeshi, Hokkaido, and the long-awaited full bottle is now available.
In February, Akkeshi Distillery released its first whisky, Akkeshi Sarorun Kamui, and this October, Akkeshi Whisky Kanro, which will be released on October 28, 2020. About 15,000 bottles will be sold.
This is the first in a series of 24 seasonal festivals. This year’s “Kanro” is usually around October 8th, which means it is right around this time of the year.
There will be a total of 24 different varieties, and the single malt and blended varieties will be released alternately.
The next release will be a blended version.
The company plans to release three to four bottles of the 24 varieties per year. If the pace is 3 bottles per year, it will take about 8 years to complete the series. I would really like to complete the series.
A blend of three year old wine, bourbon, sherry and Quercus barrels.
Each barrel is a combination of peated and unpeated, which means a total of eight different combinations of peated and unpeated barrels.
Nose | Aroma of sea tide, changing from smoky to bitter sweet. A touch of peatiness. |
Taste | Spicy and pleasantly soft peatiness. Sweetness like dried fruits and chocolate. |
Alcohol content | 55% |
alcohol category | Single malt whisky |
Barrel type | Wine barrels, bourbon barrels, sherry barrels, Quercus serrata barrels |
Contents | 700ml |
Number of bottles sold | Approx. 15,000 bottles |
Suggested retail price | 16,500 yen (tax included) |
Release date | October 28, 2020 |
Our Take
With an alcohol content of 55%, according to President Toita, it is about 30ppm smoky with a bitter sweetness lurking inside.
In the mouth, there is a spicy taste at first, but the sweetness also comes out later without the high alcohol content.
When watered down, it becomes quite mellow and delicious.
President Toita also informed me that the next release will have more peat than the current release. I’m very much looking forward to seeing what kind of whiskey it will be.
He said that his goal is to create an “all-star lineup” of barrels from the Akkeshi region, including refreshing breeze, peat, and Quercus, and he is steadily achieving this goal.
I can’t help but pay attention to the future efforts of the Akkeshi distillery, which is not a copy of Islay.
(All Images Courtesy of JPWhisky.net)
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