The third single malt release from Kanosuke, launched on 24 June 2022 at cask strength of 59%. It puts the distillery's early sherry casks at the centre of the vatting.
About This Whisky
The whisky is unpeated malt distilled between 2017 and 2019, the distillery's first three seasons. In that first season Kanosuke filled around 100 ex-Mellowed Kozuru shochu barrels, 50 ex-bourbon barrels and only 30 oloroso sherry casks. The 2021 editions leaned on the shochu and bourbon wood. For 2022 the blenders built the vatting around sherry-matured spirit, then rounded it with malt from other oak types. It was bottled at natural strength. Kanosuke's own tasting note likens the finish to a sunset sinking into the East China Sea.
Tasting Profile
- Nose: Lemon tea, honey and plum, with nikki, the Japanese cinnamon.
- Palate: Dried berries and coffee candy over a frame of older-tasting oak.
- Finish: A spiced bittersweet finish that lingers well.
Serving & Food
Pour at room temperature into a tulip glass, and trim it with a splash of cool water if the 59% feels hot. It also makes a strong highball with plenty of ice. Serve with kurobuta pork katsu, dried figs or a chocolate and coffee tart.
How to Enjoy
Drinkers comparing the early Kanosuke limited editions year by year, and fans of fruit-led sherry cask malt.
Product Details
Distillery: Kanosuke
Expression: Single Malt Limited Edition 2022
Category: Japanese single malt whisky
Region: Hioki, Kagoshima
Distilled: 2017 to 2019
Released: 24 June 2022
Cask: Sherry casks, with other oak types in the vatting
Peat: Unpeated
Strength: Cask strength
ABV: 59%
Country: Japan
Volume: 700mL
About the Distillery
Kanosuke's still house holds three copper pot stills from Miyake, each with its own neck shape and lyne arm angle. Running three spirit styles side by side gives the blenders more parts to layer when they vat a release. Behind the stills is a family business that has made shochu in Hioki for generations.
That shochu background shows in the cask cellar. Barrels that once held Mellowed Kozuru, the family's oak-aged rice shochu, are re-charred and filled with malt spirit, alongside bourbon barrels and sherry butts. The distillery calls its target style "mellow", and it sits on the dunes of Fukiagehama, where sea air reaches the warehouses.