Wealth Solutions is a specialist in selling and creating limited editions of extremely rare spirits. The Company placed on the market the oldest whiskies in the world, or cognacs dating back to the turn of 18th and 19th century. The last edition created especially for its clients is Karuizawa 1964 51 YO – the longest maturated Karuizawa ever. Only 43 bottles were filled in this series, at cask strength, natural colour and non-chill-filtered. The cask used for this edition is one of the last cask from 1960s.
This whisky comes from a legendary, closed, Japanese distillery. 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 have still been some casks left, however every year the number decreases. Unfortunately for the distillery, it gained world recognition only after it was closed. As Karuizawa is no longer licensed to produce alcoholic beverages and the distillery building has a new owner, there will be no new casks on the market and no one knows when the last whisky will be bottled.
This means that such rare and old spirit deserves a special setting. The bottle has been designed by Wealth Solutions’ creative team specially for the company’s Karuizawa editions. Furthermore, each bottle is numbered and comes with a special wooden box. The box was designed and made also specially for this edition. It consists of an independent base, top lid and four walls joined by a system of hooks and magnets. Each wall is veneered with walnut wood and decorated with a different part of a single picture representing a cherry tree inflorescence.
“This innovative type of box was designed especially for this project. It is simple in its form, just like the best examples of Japanese design, but at the same time it offers excellent bottle presentation opportunities . We can open it from one side, or from all sides at once, with the walls forming a cross, we can put all the walls together and display the picture of a cherry tree. The possibilities are unlimited,” said Maciej Rutkowski, Creative Director, Wealth Solutions.
David Broom, one of the most recognised whisky critics around the globe and a columnist for the Whisky Magazine, created a special booklet about Karuizawa. Each bottle of Karuizawa 1964 51YO will be accompanied by this booklet, which describes the history of the distillery and shows the uniqueness of this edition.
“Inevitably, the majority of casks which were saved came from the distillery’s latter period. As the whisky had never been intentionally laid down for extra-aginged iterations, the fact that there were some casks left from the 1960s was nothing short of a miracle. That they were of high quality was even more of a pleasant surprise. This was old, old-style Japanese whisky, of a character that would never be seen again. It is what you now have in front of you,” wrote Dave Broom in the booklet.
All bottles of Karuizawa 1964 51 YO were sold before the official launch of the product and it is not surprising. The same situation was observed in 2012 when Wealth Solutions launched Karuizawa 1964 48 YO.
Media contact: Piotr Suchodolski, tel.: +48 512 965 658, email: piotr.suchodolski@wealth.pl
