Type: Japanese single cask whisky

Distillery: Karuizawa

4 editions

Cask strength

Vintages: 1981/1985/1981/1978

Age: 33yo/30yo/24yo/24yo

Packaging: WS Heavy bottle made of glass of high purity and designed by Wealth Solutions creative team, gold painting on the glass, wooden box designed specially for this project and made of oak.

Kairaku-en (偕楽園) (English: “A park to be enjoyed together”) is a Japanese garden located in Mito, Ibaraki, Japan. It is served by the Jōban Line via Kairakuen Station, which is only open during the plum blossom season. Along with Kenroku-en and Koraku-en, it is considered one of the Three Great Gardens of Japan. Kairakuen was built relatively recently in the year 1841 by the local lord Tokugawa Nariaki. Unlike Japan’s other two great gardens, Kairakuen was originally intended to serve for the enjoyment of the public.

Kōraku-en (後楽園 Kōrakuen) is a Japanese garden located in Okayama, Okayama Prefecture. It is one of the Three Great Gardens of Japan. Korakuen was built in 1700 by Ikeda Tsunamasa, lord of Okayama. The garden reached its modern form in 1863.

Kenroku-en (兼六園, Six Attributes Garden), located in Kanazawa, Ishikawa, Japan, is an old private garden. It is one of the Three Great Gardens of Japan. The grounds are open year-round except for December 29th through January 3rd during daylight hours and famous for its beauty in all seasons.

Koishikawa-Kōrakuen is a seventeenth-century garden in Koishikawa, (Bunkyō, Tokyo). The garden was begun by Mito Yorifusa in 1629, and completed by his son Mito Mitsukuni. It was created with advice from the Chinese scholar Zhu Shun Shui, and incorporates elements of both Chinese and Japanese taste. It is one of three surviving daimyō gardens of the many that were created in Edo after it became the military capital of the country.

The distillery was established in 1955 by Daikoku-budoshu. The owner decided to build the facility in the town of Karuizawa located in the foothills of the active Asama volcano, a popular tourist destination in Japan.

Karuizawa was a small distillery producing alcoholic beverages with the use of traditional methods. In pursuit of the highest quality, Karuizawa was contained in casks previously filled with sherry and imported from Spain. Similar to its equivalent from the home of whisky, Scotland, Karuizawa is aged in sherry casks. However, the flavour of whisky is also influenced by local features that give it its unique character. Spring water drawn from the volcanic hills of Asama, freezing winters and hot summers are all hinted at in the flavour of this beverage and make it truly one of a kind. Karuizawa is very rich and aromatic with a distinct sherry profile.

Karuizawa used to produce whisky on a small-scale and was rather focused on the domestic market. This continued from its establishment in 1955 until 2000 when the production was ceased. Although whisky is no longer produced, there were still some casks left, but every year the number decreases. Currently, there are only 300 Karuizawa casks in the world. Three-quarters of these date back to the 1990s, and there are only 14 casks left from the 1960s.

Unfortunately for Karuizawa, it gained world recognition only after it ceased production. Since 2006, Karuizawa whisky has been reaching whisky lovers from all around the world thanks to the Number One Drinks company. When the world heard about Karuizawa, it immediately fell in love with the beverage produced in the foothills of the Asama mountain.

As Karuizawa is no longer licensed to produce alcoholic beverages and the building of the distillery has a new owner, there will be no new casks on the market. No one knows when the last whisky will be bottled…