A rather exciting release for Adelphi’s 30th anniversary, this Akkeshi was aged a mere 3 years, before being bottled in 2023. Akkeshi has always been a distillery we have thought was underappreciated, but watching the prices soar over the last year, it seems like its no longer a secret… This batch was aged in ex-Bourbon, and features Akkeshi’s lightly peated, autumnal spirit. Elegant beyond its age.
Adelphi is one of the world’s top independent bottlers of whisky. They acquire casks already matured to bottle, as opposed to maturing them themselves, and the Adelphi brand has been synonymous with top quality whisky for in the post-2000 era. The company also owns the Ardnamurchan distillery on Scotland’s east coast, which distilled its first spirit in 2014 and released its first single malt in 2020.
Akkeshi began distilling in 2016 amongst a swathe of “new” Japanese distilleries. Based in the Akkeshi District of Hokkaido, the concept of distilling and maturing single malt in Japan’s northern wilderness traces back to the very first plans of Masataka Taketsuru, a pioneer of the country’s early whisky production. Indeed, the distillery is inspired by the heavier styles of Scotch whisky, particularly those from Islay. It is owned by Kenten Co, an import-export company and President Keichi Toita is a long-time whisky aficionado and lover. He was behind the distillery’s location and style and give that the distillery is wholly backed by Kenten, they don’t have to answer to any outside parties. Akkeshi features a pair of pot stills from Forsyths, a 5,000 litre wash still and 3,600 litre spirit still. They are steam heated and feature declining lyne arms into shell-and-tube condensers. To the eye they are very Islay-esque. They have two warehouses at the distillery site and two closer to the sea so that they can see the differences in the maturation environments. Their first ‘Foundation’ spirit releases appeared throughout 2018 and 2019 before the first single malt – Sarorunkamuy – was released in 2020.
