Suntory Hakushu 18 Years Old Single Malt Whisky 70 cl

Product Information

Founded in 1973 by Keizo Saji, son of the founder of Suntory, and inaugurated on the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the Yamazaki distillery, Hakushu is nestled at an altitude of 700 meters in the heart of a preserved forest in the Japanese Alps. The Japanese whisky producer has released the limited edition Yamazaki 18 Year Old Mizunara and Hakushu 18 Year Old Peated Malt, which are both bottled at 48% ABV.

Hakushu 18 Year Old : The Whisky Exchange

Surrounded by lush nature, the distillery benefits from abundant water filtered through the granite layers fed by the Ojira and Jingu rivers, and a humid microclimate with four distinct seasons favoring the aging of whiskies. Notes of pastries, baking spices, and honey buns dominate the palate, and lead to a finish accented by touches of smoke and cinnamon.This brings us to Yamazaki 18 Year Old Mizunara, which is a masterclass in the delights of mizunara. Despite the additional cost and labor required, wooden washbacks as compared to stainless steel washbacks take advantage of the distillery’s unique location by incorporating naturally occurring lactic acid bacteria and other microorganisms into the wash.

Hakushu 18 Year Old Peated Malt - 100th Anniversary : The Hakushu 18 Year Old Peated Malt - 100th Anniversary : The

The first of these special releases is Yamazaki 18 Year Old Mizunara, a potently Japanese expression from Japan’s oldest whisky distillery. Following fermentation, the wash is distilled twice through Hakushu’s copper-pot stills before the whisky is laid to rest in the distillery’s warehouses. Back in 1923, Suntory founder Shinjirō Torii established the Yamazaki Distillery, Japan’s first commercial whisky distillery, just outside of Kyoto.This is in contrast to the now-dormant old site (referred to as Hakushu West) which had 24 large stills identical in shape and size, but only capable of producing one particular style of distillate. I'm a massive fan of Japanese whisky, having had pretty much every mainstream bottling on offer, and a big fan of the 12yo Hakushu (probably my favourite). The malt whiskies born here are simultaneously blessed with a very particular microclimate, verdant forests, and water offering a rare softness only made possible by filtration of rain and snow through thousand-year-old granite rocks.