The Mizunara Wood Reserve pure malt Japanese whisky which has been matured in Japanese oak.
Bottled at 46% with no added colouring and no chill-filtration, it has been matured, vatted and bottled at Chichibu.
The Akuto family, whose history with sake production dates back to the 17th century, had previously run the Hanyu distillery. It closed in 2000 and then when under new ownership dismantled in 2004.
Ichiro Akuto, whose grandfather had built Hanyu, managed to secure much of the maturing stocks around that time and took them to market as Hanyu whilst planning his own, new distillery. That would become Chichibu, which was opened in 2008.
Mizunara is a style of oak exclusive to Japan which, while quite hard to manage, provides beautiful perfumed, sweet notes to whisky.
This expression is soft and light, with lots of honey and toffee spices.
