We last saw a very exciting Malt Duo that involved whisky swapping between two great Japanese distilleries - Mars Whisky and Chichibu Distillery in 2021, and now we're getting the second edition of that - here's the Malt Duo Tsunuki x Akkeshi!

Whisky swapping has been quite a popular show of camaraderie in the Japanese whisky scene, particularly as Japanese distillers try to get their hands on new styles of whiskies that they can work with to showcase their blending abilities. There has been at least a few rather popular whisky swap series' started by various craft distillers thus far, and the Malt Duo has been the series helmed by Mars whisky.

Mars' Tsunuki Distillery (above) and Akkeshi Distillery (below).

Now Mars Whisky themselves are in no lack of whisky styles, with two distilleries fully operational - Komagatake and Tsunuki, and a third ageing cellar in Yakushima. This give them quite a varied arsenal of whiskies that they can use to blend around with, yet they've been forthcoming in collaborating with other distillers and that's only produced more interesting whiskies for us to dig into!

And so we've got this new collaboration that will see two bottlings, one blended by Mars, and the other by Akkeshi, both made using single malt distilled in the same 2016 vintage.

"Mars Tsunuki Distillery and Akkeshi Distillery began distilling in Kagoshima and Hokkaido, respectively, in 2016. The two distilleries, which have completely different climates and geographical features, exchanged malt malt spirits in 2018 and began aging in their respective locations. This bottle is a blended malt Japanese whiskey made by vatting two malt malt spirits, Tsunuki and Akkeshi, aged at Mars Tsunuki Distillery . Please enjoy the collaboration between Tsunuki and Akkeshi, which lit the fires in their pot stills in far-flung places at the same time.

We want to explore the further possibilities of Japanese whiskey and create delicious whiskey beyond the boundaries of distilleries. The Malt Duo series involves exchanging malt malts with each other, aging them in their own environments, and vatting them with our own malt malt malts. This is the second release following "Mars Whisky Malt Duo Komagatake x Chichibu 2021"."

MARS WHISKY Malt Duo TSUNUKI × AKKESHI

• Primarily Bourbon Barrels
• 11,000 Bottles Released
• 51% ABV
• 19,800 JPY (US$132.30)

Akkeshi Vatted Malt Japanese Whisky Kamui Whisky® Capacciri Kamui

For Akkeshi's blend, they've named it in inspiration of the Ainu word for giant eagle, Kapatchiri Kamui, and thus the bottle's label features a contrast of the black and white features of the bird, and also symbolises Akkeshi in the north and Tsunuki in the south.

• 47% ABV
• 29,700 JPY (US$198.40)