Karuizawa 48 Year 1964 Cask # 3603 miniature 50mL

A 50mL miniature of Karuizawa cask #3603, distilled on 1 September 1964 and bottled on 24 December 2012 at 48 years old. When it was released it was the oldest Karuizawa yet bottled.

About This Whisky

The Polish firm Wealth Solutions bought this cask and released it at natural strength, 57.7%, with no chill filtration and no added colour. The cask, a 400-litre sherry cask, held just 143 full-size bottles after nearly half a century. It spent its life in a traditional dunnage warehouse at Karuizawa and was taken to Chichibu distillery for bottling. The 70cl bottles were presented in a dark wooden box built partly from Polish black fossil oak. A miniature gives a way to taste a cask of this age without opening a full bottle.

Tasting Profile

• Nose: Deep old sherry, prune and roasted coffee, with a thread of camphor and old leather.
• Palate: Dense and resinous. Dark chocolate, stewed fig and liquorice, with firm oak tannins.
• Finish: Long and drying, with spice, rancio and polished wood.

Serving & Food

Share it between two small glasses at room temperature. With only 50mL, go slowly and taste neat before deciding on water. A few dried figs or a square of 85% chocolate is plenty alongside.

How to Enjoy

A tasting-sized pour from a 1964 Karuizawa, or a small display piece next to later vintages.

Product Details

About the Distillery

Barley shaped the Karuizawa style. When Japan relaxed its import rules in 1958, the distillery started bringing in malting barley from Scotland, including Golden Promise, the low-yielding variety Macallan also relied on.

With that barley, small stills and Spanish sherry wood, Karuizawa set out to make a rich, Speyside-leaning malt meant for long ageing. The 1960s casks are the oldest of that spirit, and only a handful survived long enough to be bottled as single casks.