Ichiro’s Malt & Grain “111 Proof” World Whisky By the Chichibu Distillery Skurnik

55.5% ABV, 700 ml, By the Chichibu Distillery, Non-chill filtered

US-exclusive blend of malt and grain whiskies vatted and matured by Chichibu Distillery in Saitama, Japan. In a marked departure from Chichibu Distillery’s flagship “white label” world whisky, Ichiro’s Malt & Grain 111 Proof features the inclusion of peated malt, an entirely new cask regimen, and is bottled at the highest proof for a core blend outside of Chichibu’s distillery-exclusive releases.

• Whiskies include Scotch, Canadian rye, American whiskey, Irish whiskey, and Ichiro’s own Japanese single malt 

• Aged 4–17 years in a combination of cask types including ex–bourbon and ex–rye whiskey barrels 

• Sweet aromas of cola, shortbread, and tobacco precede a palate highlighting candied orange and dried pineapple with subtle peat smoke on a finish flush with tropical fruit and sea salt 

• Bottled without additives or coloring 

It all started some three centuries ago when the first of Ichiro Akuto’s forefathers began making alcoholic beverages in Saitama Prefecture. His grandfather began making whisky in the mid-1940’s with Hanyu Distillery, whose focus on malt whiskies took off with the Japanese economic boom of the 1980s. However, when the bubble burst in the 1990s, so too did the first Japanese Whisky boom, leading Hanyu—like several other distillers—to shutter its doors. Ichiro saved his grandfather’s old inventory and subsequently released the Playing Card series. This collection, which debuted to a slow start in the early 2000s, is now considered unicorn whisky, the stuff of legend. With the success of the playing cards, Ichiro saw that the Japanese whisky revival was imminent and in 2008 he built his current distillery in Chichubu. Chichubu distillery is where Ichiro, a 21st-century whisky-maker, embraces the heritage and heart of the Scots, balanced by the precision of the Japanese and the shokunin philosophy.