What you need to know:

• Intergalactic Series is a series of private Chichicbu bottlings for Austrian alcohol distributors Vienna Distribution and Salud Distribution.
• They have been a mega hit with secondary prices spacebound, after all it hits all the right spots, Chichibu + Cool Label = Irrational Exuberance
• The previous two sets have been Robot-themed (#1 and #2) and Anime-themed (#3 and #4). This set is Spaceman-themed, designed by graphic designer Mr Kalopsia.
• They are bottled at fairly high strengths in the 60s and are 1^st Fill Bourbon Barrel matured. We hypothesise them to be sweet creamy ice cream soda with the wonderful Chichibu zestiness.
• We stand about as much chance of trying them as we do getting onto the Virgin Galactic trip with Richard Branson.

Vienna Distribution’s Chichibu Intergalactic Series 5 and 6 labels. (Image Source: Vienna Distribution)

Austrian alcoholic beverage distributors Vienna Distribution and Salud Distribution has released the next set of labels for the hotly followed Chichibu Intergalactic Series, specifically Edition 5 and 6.

Chichibu being the wildly popular craft Japanese whisky, which recently hit its 10 year milestone, has long been releasing whisky under private cask bottlings much more so than ensuring the availability of its own core line.

This basically means that Chichibu has designated more of its whiskies produced to be bottled for private buyers than they have for their own flagship brand, Ichiro’s Malt Chichibu.

That may sound peculiar to some but consider this. Chichibu is a really small distillery by every measure: staff count, annual production of whisky, size of its distilleries (though they are expanding!).

Chichibu small compound could easily be passed off as an inn by the side of a road. (Image Source: Whisky.com)

This is in contrast to their behemoth counterparts in Japan, Suntory, Nikka (which belongs to Asahi) and Mars. As such, funding is absolutely key to staying afloat. It isn’t all good times and jolly whiskies y’know!

You can read more about Yamazaki here and Nikka's Yoichi here.

Chichibu private bottlings for La Maison Du Whisky, a major spirits distributor in Paris. (Image Source: Dekanta)

This translates into Chichibu allowing private buyers to pay upfront for casks that will eventually be bottled when they reach maturity. As production numbers are small, most of these casks end up in the hands of private buyers.

But of course, as Chichibu’s reputation precedes it, it has been able to actually begin expansion, with a second distillery coming online a couple of years back.

You can read more about Chichibu here.

At the risk of committing the unforgivable sin of explaining the joke, the Intergalactic Series is an example of Chichibu’s whiskies bottled for private buyers, in this instance, for Vienna and Salud Distribution.

The Intergalactic Series has been met with great enthusiasm and secondary prices on auction sites have been similarly rocketing to the moon. Given that it is from Chichibu and the mega cool label, I mean come on… this was bound to be a hit.

Taking a quick retrospective of the prior two sets, the first being robot themed and the second being anime themed.

The first set was Robot-themed. (Image Source: Whisky Auctioneer)

The second set was Anime-themed. (Image Source: Whisky Auctioneer)

The latest in this series, #5 and #6 are Spaceman themed and designed by graphic designer Mr Kalopsia, who specializes in what else but spaceman designs.

According to Mr Kalopsia,

For Edition 5, the spaceman represents the state of mind of a customer of Chichibu Whisky, who feels that they are in a voyage to explore the universe. The rings surrounded by the spaceman signifies the spiritual energy that they possess which binds the whole universe together. It is as if the whole universe revolves around the spaceman.

For Edition 6, The spaceman represents the state of mind of a customer of Chichibu Whisky, who travels across the universe inside their minds but at the comfort of their shelters. The bright light shining inside the shelter also represents the enlightenment of the conscious self while discovering the deepness of universe inside the mind.

“My ideology while creating the label for Chichibu Whisky Intergalactic series was to make the customer relate to the character in the design. The customer, while having a fine glass of whisky, should get lost looking at the design and enjoy the vibe as if they were to travel across the universe”

The bottles are both taken out of 1^st Fill Bourbon Barrels, and should land at around 6 years old, Edition 5 punching in at 62.3% ABV and Edition 6 weighing in at 63.6% ABV.

The bourbon barrels should make for good whisky, if you do actually end up uncorking it. The sweet vanilla creaminess always serves as a good mellow foundation for the more zesty Chichibu flavors, as opposed to the Chichibu beer casks that was a lot more mixed in its reviews.

They are available from their respective websites or instore if you happen to be in Vienna. 

Kanpai!

@111hotpot