My first Kanosuke review! This one was bottled for the distillery's festival in 2025, and a good mate shared a sample from his souvenir bottle. It's been a while since I've featured anything Japanese, and this shochu cask Kanosuke is very, very Japanese!
Kanosuke Distillery (pronounced "can-osk-ay") is in the Kagoshima Prefecture (region) of Kyushu, the southernmost of Japan's four main islands. The distillery was built in 2017 right by a 50km-long beach on the island's west coast near the town of Hioki, around 1,300km south-west of Tokyo, requiring a 2-hour flight from Tokyo (Haneda) to Kagoshima Airport, then an hour's drive west to the distillery. Being closer to Taiwan than it is to Tokyo, this is a warmer area than most of Japan with temperatures & humidity getting quite high, although being under 100m from the East China Sea does give some relief from the conditions further inland. Despite being founded in November 2017 Kanosuke is quickly becoming one of the leading "new breed" Japanese malt whisky distilleries, and is one of the "proper" Japanese malt whisky distilleries making authentic Japanese whisky, including being a member of the voluntary JSLMA agreements on regulations surrounding Japanese whisky. Kanosuke attracted a minority investment from Diageo's Distill Ventures back in 2021, much like Australia's Starward, Denmark's Stauning, and America's Westward, although Diageo has since withdrawn that support worldwide and the distilleries are mostly back under private ownership. As with the other distilleries involved, that investment did help Kanosuke start exporting to the US and increase their product range. The Australian importer for Kanosuke is Melbourne's Casa De Vinos, who also bring us Japanese single malts Chichibu and Akkeshi, and recently became the importer for Thompson Bros independent bottlings.
The company behind Kanosuke was founded in 1883 and produces shochu, a Japanese spirit typically made from rice, sweet potato, or barley, fermented with koji mould and traditionally only single-distilled in pot stills. In 1957 the Master Distiller named Kanosuke Komasa - whom the whisky distillery was named after - became the first producer to barrel-age shochu and created a new category in the spirit, which would come in handy 60-years later as all Kanosuke single malts are initially aged in re-charred ex-shochu casks. Kanosuke uses both unpeated and peated malted barley, although the majority of production is unpeated. Both are fermented for 96-hours in stainless steel washbacks, and there are three copper pot stills, one wash and two spirit, each with a differently-angled lyne arm. All three stills are fitted with traditional worm tub condensers, which is common in shochu distillation but is very uncommon in Japanese whisky - most producers are looking for the lighter and cleaner character given by more modern shell & tube condensers, rather than the heavier, meatier, and more sulphurous character given by worm tubs. The warmer climate on Kyushu helps boost the maturation and interactions between the spirit and the cask, which is crucial for the removal of any undesired sulphur, and the distillery is aiming for a "mellow" flavour profile across their range. As mentioned above, generally Kanosuke single malts will spend 6-24 months in re-charred ex-shochu casks before being transferred to ex-bourbon or ex-sherry casks for the remaining maturation, but there are a number of other cask types in the warehouses, from IPA beer to sweet fortified wine, among others. As with most Japanese whisky producers a number of different styles of whisky are produced in-house by the parent company, from single grains, to blends of grain & malt, to both peated and unpeated single malts. The Komasa company owns a second distillery in nearby Hioki which primarily produces grain whisky from 90% unmalted barley and 10% malted barley that is distilled in stainless steel pot stills, the product of which is labelled as Hioki Pot Still with a similar interpretation to an Irish pot still whiskey. This Hioki grain whisky is also blended with Kanosuke malt whisky to create their Double Distillery product, similar to what Chichibu does with their Double Distillery blended malt which was a blend of malts from Chichibu and Hanyu in the past, but is now a blend of malts from Chichibu and Chichibu II.
The Kanosuke we're looking at today is a single cask bottled for the distillery's festival in 2025, which is an unpeated single malt distilled in January 2020 and bottled in October 2025 at 56.0% ABV. It was fully matured in ex-shochu casks, both re-charred and non-re-charred, of 450-litre capacity. This is an usual cask treatment even among Japanese single malts, let alone worldwide. Since this is a single cask bottling I'm assuming it was initially matured in the re-charred casks as is the standard operating procedure for Kanosuke, then moved into a non-re-charred cask for the remainder of its 5-years of maturation. Most Kanosuke expressions would only spend 6-24 months in shochu casks before being moved to a more conventional cask type, and this is my first time tasting a whisky fully matured in ex-shochu casks. I have to admit the one time I tried shochu itself I wasn't really a fan, but that's like trying one whisky and saying that you're not a fan of the entire category, and not being a big fan of a the previous occupant of a cask doesn't mean you won't like the whisky that the same cask creates! As for the influence of the shochu casks in this whisky, and in Kanosuke's whiskies in general, supposedly they add some sweetness and white peach flavours, while the re-charring adds more sweetness and wood influence. Regardless it's a unique selling point that allows Kanosuke to take advantages of the parent company's casks, and this distillery festival bottling being fully matured in those casks makes it pretty unique! Let's see how it goes.
Kanosuke Festival 2025, 5-years old, 56.0%. Kagoshima, Japan.
Unpeated, distilled 2020, fully matured in re-charred & non re-charred ex-shochu casks. Non-chill filtered, natural colour. 600 bottles.
Colour: Amber.
Nose: Fruity, floral, malty. Fresh green pears, crunchy malted barley, touch of honey. Champagne (bubbles and all), candied lemon peel, touch of wood smoke. Becomes more malty as it breathes, with sprite (lemonade), apricot pie, and vanilla custard.
Texture: Medium weight. Fresh, crunchy, clean, malty. Very slight heat.
Taste: Fizzy (effervescent), malty, fresh. More sprite (lemonade), green pears, and crunchy malted barley. Lemon peel, maybe even yuzu? But doesn't seem as sweet. Black pepper, and a touch of charred wood.
Finish: Medium length. Milk bottle lollies (think chewy vanilla), touch of honey, and a lightly bitter herbal note that is hard to pin down. Lemon juice, charred wood, and malted barley to finish.
Score: 3.5 out of 5.
Notes: Lovely light, clean, fresh whisky, with plenty of flavour & texture! Certainly seems to stick out as a "crunchy" textured whisky, particularly with the malty aspect, which is quite odd but very enjoyable! Most of the Kanosuke I've tried to date has had significant sherry cask influence, so it's great to finally try a more spirit-driven example with less cask influence. And this is definitely how I prefer their whiskies, showing the distillery character more. This is a very summery, easy-drinking whisky that doesn't sacrifice flavour or texture, with some interesting touches of acidity (sourness) and those fizzy & bitter notes that are quite unusual but very enjoyable! Could possibly be the ex-shochu casks showing through, but I haven't had enough shochu to be able to confirm either way. I definitely do prefer this expression to some of the sherry finished / sherry influenced Kanosuke that I've tried, which had too much cask influence for my personal preference. I'm also yet to try a peated example, so will have to put my feelers out for one of those!
Definitely seems like Kanosuke is coming into their own with this sort of exclusive release, doing things differently from other Japanese producers without going too far off the path. It's great to see another of the "new breed" of Japanese distilleries hitting their stride!
Cheers!
