The first single malt whisky from new Japanese distillery Akkeshi after a series of ‘spirit’ offerings.
Following on from the ‘New Born’ Foundations series of spirit releases, Sarorunkamuy is the first official whisky matured for over three years.
Bottled at 55% in 200ml bottles.
Serge Valentin of WhiskyFun.com had these thoughts:
“Great real Japanese whisky again, but gosh aren’t they making our lives difficult? I mean, that name, that’s a mouthful!
Colour: Straw.
Nose: Indeed the peat’s very discreet, while the vanilla cake is not. Custard and carrot cake, whiffs of green pepper… With water: pure malt, ink, yeast, cement, grist…
Mouth (neat): extremely very good. Lime, peat, a baguette smoked over some pinewood fire (who’s ever done that?) and some rather bitter eggplants. Much nicer than it sounds (my fault, assuredly). With water: I’m not sure I get everything from that ‘light peat’, but all in all, this works a treat. Very fermentary. Finish: medium, saltier, all on sourdough now. Süweckle, some honey in the aftertaste. Comments: I believe we’ve tried another expression back in October, this one’s rather more to my liking.”
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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.
