Kanosuke Distillery is probably the hottest of the rising stars from Japan's latest wave of distillers - a phenomenon that is certainly worth being excited about.

For decades the landscape was dominated by several major brands, which was then punctuated by one Chichibu Distillery, which has already gone on to reach legendary status. This gave many others the courage to start their own distilleries which gave birth to a new crop of Japanese whiskymakers - one of whom is Kanosuke.

A combination of early reviews from key opinion leaders in the scene, the distillery's lineage of pioneering shochu-making (creating the first barrel aged Shochu, Mellowed Kozuru), the conviction (and resources) with which the distillery was built out, all certainly helped to stoke the flames of anticipation for its first release.

| Read: Mellow Land, Mellow Whisky – Kanosuke Distillery Deepdive

The distillery would later release a second edition in 2021 and one more in 2022, before bagging numerous international awards and an investment from drinks giant Diageo's Distill Ventures - which really cemented its rising star status.

As mentioned, today's Kanosuke 2021 First Edition, was the first proper release from the Kagoshima-based distillery, and as if the distillery wanted to tease would be fans more, it focused its first release on paying homage to its shochu-making roots - this was predominantly aged in ex-Mellowed Kozuru shochu casks.

Let's see if it lives up to the hype! 

Kanosuke 2021 First Edition - Review

Tasting Notes 

Color: Dark Gold

Aroma: Quite punchy, but very aromatic - a deep aroma of cinnamon, custard, stewed apples and spiced pears - almost pastry-esque. It's simultaneously quite fresh and bright, but at the same time rich and honeyed. With time there's alittle bit more of that herbal honey note, as well as raisins and plums.

Taste: Really deep honeyed notes of apple pie stuffing, cinnamon, lots of baking spices, brown sugar, vanilla - albeit quite hot. It's a little peppery as well. More of that raisins and cooked plums. 

Finish: The heat takes to the finish but here it does make it come across as quite refreshing and minty. Then a very interesting note that is reminiscent of mochi or perhaps glutinuous rice or some sort of dough made of sweet potato starch - it's almost candied but chewy and gooey. Finally more on the brown sugar, cooked apples and cinnamon.

My Thoughts

My Rating: 🤤

This was really interesting - as you might guess, that mochi flavor at the finish really floored me. It was somehow sweet yet glutinous which was just incredible! Even now, a day after I tried it, I still long for it. I wonder if that's the ex-shochu cask talking. It's really got me curious about how Kanosuke's parent company's Mellowed Kozuru tastes.

That aside, this was still quite punchy, which thankfully does mellow out with subsequent Kanosuke releases (I tried this in 2023, when Kanosuke releases were in full swing). Also having tried other Kanosuke releases that came after this, I was quite impressed that even at the inaugural release, the distillery's DNA is already clearly expressed - poached apples, custard, cinnamon.

Altogether, definitely an expression worth picking up. There happens to be one left at Master of Malt (International Shipping), otherwise look out for it on auction boards.

Kanpai!

@111hotpot