The fourth instalment in the "On The Way" series from Japan's fantastic Chichibu Distillery. Cask strength single malt distilled from floor-malted barley, and it's delicious!
I was lucky enough to visit Chichibu Distillery during my trip to Japan in 2023, thanks to the distillery's Australian importer Casa De Vinos. It's taken me until now to write about that visit, partly because I didn't have any Chichibu to review alongside the write-up, despite trying many during that trip - both at the distillery and in Japan's many outstanding whisky bars. But here we are over a year later, and I'm looking at a recent bottling that definitely deserves your attention, as does the distillery in general. Chichibu single malts are in extremely high demand worldwide, both in Japan and here in Australia, and both official and independent bottlings are very expensive as a result. Despite being a relatively young distillery Chichibu is essentially Japan's answer to Springbank, in more ways than one. So while it's been caught up in the continuing worldwide hype around Japanese whisky, Chichibu has suffered more than most from the sudden & massive surge in popularity. Annual production is generally well under 65,000-litres of spirit, which puts the distillery's output in-line with Scottish distilleries like tiny farm distillery Daftmill or Glengyle (producing Kilkerran) which only operates for three months of the year. That said, Chichibu has been a little quicker on their feet and in 2019 built a second much larger distillery located a few minutes away from the original. Additionally the company is currently building a grain whisky distillery on Hokkaido, Japan's northern island, which will be used for future blended whiskies but potentially also single grain bottlings. The two malt distilleries are romantically known as Chichibu #1 and Chichibu #2, but no single malt official bottlings have been released from the second distillery as yet, so we'll focus on the original malt distillery, Chichibu #1, for now. It was founded back in 2007 and began producing spirit in February 2008, with the first single malt whisky released three years later in 2011.
Chichibu Distillery was founded by Ichiro Akuto, the grandson of the founder of the legendary Japanese demolished distillery Hanyu, in addition to a long family tradition of sake brewing. The company behind Chichibu Distillery "Venture Whisky" was founded in 2004, but is more widely known as Ichiro's Malts. Ichiro's also produces blended malts under the 'Ichiro's Malt' label and blended whiskies under the 'Ichiro's Malt & Grain' label, which are not to be overlooked in their own rights. Some are delicious and often contain well-aged grain & malt whiskies from closed distilleries like Hanyu or Kawasaki - Mr. Akuto skilfully acquired the remaining stock of both when the distilleries had closed and were destined for demolition. He's also the man behind the "Card" series of Hanyu bottlings which trade for insane amounts of money these days - despite the oldest whisky involved being "only" 20-years old, the more desirable bottlings will often go for well over $20,000 at auction, and the full set of 54 bottlings reached $1,500,000 in Hong Kong back in 2019 - no doubt it would reach even higher these days. At the other end of the scale, the company's entry-level Ichiro's Malt & Grain "world blend" is a tasty whisky and offers great value if you can get it near the Japanese retail pricing, which is around 4,000 JPY or $40 AUD. Despite being bottled at 46% ABV it'll often be used for cocktails or highballs (whisky & soda on the rocks) over there, where it works very well. Outside of Japan it's priced too highly for that, unfortunately! Chichibu single malts, on the other hand, retail for around 40,000 JPY ($400 AUD) and upwards on the shelves of Japanese retailers and similar equivalents further abroad including here in Australia, with older bottlings of younger releases often being priced much higher. Independent bottlings are very scarce and can be even more expensive from the likes of Adelphi and the SMWS.
Chichibu Distillery is located on the outskirts of its namesake city, which is in Saitama Prefecture, roughly two hours north-west of Tokyo. It's not particularly easy to get there while travelling, requiring either a direct train on the "Seibu" trainline from Ikebukuro Station in the north-west of Tokyo, or a JR train from Tokyo Station to Kumagaya where you change to the Chichibu line for the remainder of the journey. Either method will cost about $20 each way, and you'll then need a taxi to & from the distillery itself which takes around 20-minutes. The distillery does not have a visitor's centre and does not offer tours to the public, but if you know someone it is absolutely worth the effort in getting there. The distillery does open its doors during the Chichibu Whisky Matsuri (festival(, which takes place annually in February. Aside from the distillery itself, even the relatively small city of Chichibu is well worth the visit if you ask me, with a few very good bottle shops / liquor stores dotted around the city and even a fantastic branch of the Highlander Inn whisky bar. You can also find Chichibu whiskies at many local restaurants and bars, including in the train station. These local options are by far the cheapest way to taste one of these whiskies; during my trip I had a fantastic lunch of delicious donburi & side dishes with a dram of a single cask Chichibu for a total price of $28. Yes, that was the total for both the meal and the dram. Coming from Australia where you can easily pay $30 for a pub lunch - of much lower quality - without a drink, that was quite the bargain!
Chichibu is a small, old school, hands-on distillery. The vast majority of unpeated barley used at Chichibu #1 is sourced from inside Japan, while their peated releases use malt imported from the UK. The mash tun is tiny and manually stirred / raked, while fermentation is long, up to 96-hours, and takes place in eight relatively small washbacks that are made from Mizunara (Japanese oak) - to my knowledge this is the only distillery in the world that is using Mizunara washbacks, and they would've been extremely expensive. The two very small copper pot stills pictured above were made by Forsyth's in Scotland, and are heated by internal steam coils that are run slowly, and use shell & tube condensers - interestingly, the newer and larger malt distillery Chichibu #2 features French oak washbacks and direct-fired stills, so that'll be one to watch in future! The quality of their whisky is the main consideration at Chichibu, and these are generally quite spirit-driven whiskies with plenty of character. While some are fully matured in active sherry or red wine casks, Ichiro's is careful to make sure that the distillery character is not lost. A cooperage was built on-site so the distillery can build and repair its own casks, which range from ex-bourbon, ex-sherry, and ex-red wine, to Mizunara (Japanese oak), and Chibidaru casks. The latter roughly translates to "cute cask" in English, and is broadly Ichiro's answer to a quarter cask in Scotch whisky. Chibidaru casks are ex-bourbon American oak hogsheads (250-litres) recoopered into 150-litre casks, sometimes combined with cask heads made from Mizunara (Japanese oak) or virgin oak. Those whiskies are generally bottled young as a result, and the casks are subsequently filled for a second time. All warehouses at Chichibu are the traditional dunnage type, of which there are five on-site, with casks stacked horizontally three-high on earthen floors. Hands-on manual production, majority local barley, long fermentation in wooden washbacks, small production equipment, dunnage warehouses, and characterful spirit-driven malt whisky. Like I said, this is essentially Japan's take on Springbank!
The Chichibu single malt that we're looking at today is a recent bottling, and is the fourth release in the distillery's "On The Way" series of work in progress bottlings which debuted in 2013. This fourth On The Way release has been distilled from 100% Japanese barley, grown in Japan and then floor-malted in the UK by Chichibu Distillery staff who were flown over to work with (and learn from) the specialists at the maltings. This is obviously not the norm for Chichibu, which normally uses Japanese barley that is commercially malted locally. This release is a vatting of casks aged from 9-15 years with an average age of 11-years, including ex-bourbon, ex-wine, and Chibidaru (see above). I'm assuming the majority were refill since the casks used in this vatting were specifically chosen to show the barley character rather than any overt cask influence. No Chichibu single malts are artificially coloured or chill filtered, and they're usually bottled at cask strength; 54.5% ABV in this case. This was quite a large release with 12,000 bottles available globally, priced locally at $350-375 AUD. Worldwide scarcity aside that's a steep figure for a large release of a relatively young malt, but I was comfortable with the price tag given the quality of this whisky and its relative affordability compared to the single cask releases - which are often $600 or more. Let's take it for a spin!
Distilled from 100% floor-malted Japanese barley malted in the UK. Aged 9-15 years, average 11-years. Ex-bourbon, ex-red wine, and ex-Chibidaru (150-litre ex-bourbon) casks. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 12,000 bottles.
Colour: Pale gold.
Nose: Creamy, bright, and fruity. Damp malted barley, creamy porridge with honey, peat juice, and malt biscuits. Flashes of banana chips, yellow peaches, plum, and nectarine. Touch of ground white pepper & milk bottle lollies / confectionary. Cut grass, lemon drops, and sandalwood spice with more time.
Texture: Medium weight. Creamy, malty, bright. Slightly lactic. Slight heat but pleasant.
Taste: Lovely biscuity maltiness, creamy porridge with honey, bright tropical fruit. More peach, nectarine, and plum, bit of apricot and pineapple. Sandalwood, ground white pepper, a little vanilla fudge. Lemon drops, touches of walnuts & banana bread around the edges.
Finish: Medium-long length. Fruity & creamy, a little lactic (creamy peach yoghurt). White pepper, milk bottle lollies, that apricot & nectarine again. Dried pineapple again. Lemon-scented white chocolate.
Score: 4 out of 5.
Notes: Lovely stuff. Seems both fresh & youthful and mature & characterful at the same time. There are shades of Bruichladdich's Islay Barley & Bere Barley releases here, but with added fruitiness and a touch more maturity, and less lactic notes. Subtle cask influence is present in the sandalwood - which I always seem to get from mizunara cask whiskies, but that could be coincidental - and the vanilla fudge notes. This is a lovely spirit-driven whisky with a great malty character, both of which are rare traits in Japanese single malts. Aside from Chichibu, anyway! Interestingly though, this release isn't immediately identifiable as a Chichibu. It's delicious, don't get me wrong, but anyone who has tasted a selection of the unpeated ex-bourbon cask releases will know that all tend to have a similar backbone to the spirit; a fruity, almost bubble gum-like character alongside a robust maltiness. This floor malted release does not have those familiar notes, it's different, which I suppose we have to put down to that floor malting process and also the cask selection for this bottling. That's not to say that it isn't just as delicious as "standard" Chichibu, because it is!
These are expensive whiskies, no question, and they're not easy to get your hands on in any market. But with Chichibu the quality and character is there as a reward for your patience and hard-earned funds, which isn't always the case with Japanese whiskies these days. Plus it's priced at $200-300 AUD less than some of the single cask bottlings, so this one is definitely worth hunting down!
Cheers!
