Chichibu London Edition 2020

From its Mizunara wash backs and small stills with steep lyne arms to the fact that the mashman uses a wooden paddle to stir the mash, Chichibu is a hands-on distillery with quality as an intrinsic focus.

The ground now broken on a blending room, and an off-site cooperage, Ichiro Akuto’s distillery – formed from the ashes of his grandfather’s Hanyu distillery – is one of the finest producers in Japan.

With the perfect climate of humid summers and cold winters, Chichibu is an ideal location for whisky production and has become a huge part of the Japanese whisky revolution.

Ichiro’s Malt Chichibu London Edition 2020 from the Japanese Chichibu distillery was bottled for the annual Whisky Show in London, which was moved online due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It is a blend of whiskies from seven casks that matured between six and eight years. The majority are ex-bourbon barrels, the others are refill ex-peated casks and casks that have been fitted with new Japanese Mizunara Oak heads. Only 1736 bottles of Ichiro’s Malt Chichibu London Edition 2020 have been released.