r/JapaneseWhisky

Hi all, I'm here with another Japanese whisky, this time it's one from Kanosuke!

In case if anyone isn't familar with Kanosuke, here's a bit of background:

The Kanosuke Distillery was founded in 2017 by the Komasa Jyozo, which had more than 130 years of history making traditional distilled spirits (shochu) before dipping their feet into whisky making. 

Their distillery was situated on the coast of Kagoshima Prefecture near the southmost part of Japan's mainland, with subtropical and coastal environments which they used to their advantage. They are also quite experimental with using various different cask types (including shochu casks) and distillation methods:  they also have a secondary distillery, the Hioki distillery, which produces more shochus as well as Irish style pot still whiskies (using both malted and unmalted barley). 

Each year they also create a special release with a 'theme', by mixing and matching a wide variety of their own cask finished whiskies:

The 2021 Edition was shochu cask focus (edition 2 was a more conventional bourbon + sherry cask); 2022 Edition was a sherry bomb; 2023 had a peated malt focus; 2024 was a pot still whisky inspired blend; and 2025 was shochu and rum cask focus, and 2026 is a sherry and wine cask focus!

This one here is their 2023 special release, their peated whisky!

Details in comments!

3 of these bottles recently went for auction at K&L and I won one of the bids for $107. After buyers fees and tax it came out to $133. Considering the rarity and typically higher cost, I figured why not.

I’ve not tried the NAS Yoichi, and I typically gravitate towards Scotch, but I do enjoy Japanese offerings like Hibiki, and even Toki highballs. Granted, I’ve never done a deep dive, so my experience is limited, but I’ve been wanting to try something from Nikka because of its history and I wanted to try something smoky.

I’ll have to see how the bottle progresses, but overall it hasn’t made me look twice. Not to say that it’s bad by any means, but it’s kind of medium all around and inoffensive. Medium fragrance, medium bodied, medium finish. It seems to lean on the sweeter side, mostly rounded in the mouth. I’m not one to embellish reviews but I get the honey/vanilla/caramel/apple vibes. The smokiness is more of an accent and refrains from drawing attention to itself.

I don’t think I’d necessarily buy it again, but I would be curious to see how it compares to the NAS version.

Overall it’s fine. It’s very well rounded and there’s nothing wrong with it. I don’t know, let’s say 7.5/10

Distiller & Region: Fuji Gotemba Distillery, Shizuoka, Japan
ABV: 46%
Age: NAS
Price: ￥5280 JPY, $33.30 USD (8/2026)
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Background: Established in 1973, Fuji Gotemba Distillery is operated by Kirin in in Gotemba, Shizuoka. The distillery produces malt, bourbon, and rye whisky using three different types of stills, allowing it to create a diverse range of spirits. Fuji Single Malt is the distillery's first single malt, released in 2020, and is made entirely from malt whisky distilled at Fuji Gotemba. It is matured in bourbon, beer, and French oak wine casks.
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Tasting Notes

Nose: Green Apple, Fresh cut grass, Floral, Pineapple, Vanilla, Crème Brûlée, Honey, Orange Peel

Palate: Oat Biscuits, Light Caramel, Fruit Tart, Pineapples, Peach, Pear, Black Tea

Finish: Malty and Light Smoke, Fruity Sweet Tea
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Summary: While Fuji Single Malt is a relatively new Japanese single malt whisky compared to the offerings from the other two of Japan's Big Three beverage conglomerates (Suntory – Yamazaki, Hakushu | Nikka – Yoichi, Miyagikyo), it manages to hold its own in terms of uniqueness. I feel like it's often overshadowed and overlooked compared to the other bottles, yet I always find myself keeping a bottle of this on my shelves. I don't often find reviews of this bottle, so I thought I'd throw mine in and hopefully it'll attract some people to give it a try!

Fuji Single Malt immediately delivers a scent of Green Apples and Fresh-cut Grass, Fuji Single Malt immediately delivers a scent of Green Apples and Fresh-cut Grass, which I'd say is similar to Freshly Malted Barley. Following that, you get some creamy and sweet notes of Vanilla, Crème Brûlée, and even Honey. Add a bit of water, and the whisky opens up to reveal some Floral and Fruity notes of Pineapples, and Orange Peel.

I recommend adding some water as you go along, as their website recommends, since doing so can reveal multiple layers of aromas.

On the palate, it tastes quite similar to how it smells, leading in with Oat Biscuits and that Malty Sweetness. Following that, I get hints of Light Caramel and, funnily enough, some hints of beer (seems like those beer casks come into good use). Letting it rest a bit more and a few sips later, I start getting the Fruity notes again, a nice Fruit Tart, the mix of Pineapples, Peaches, and Pears over a Sweet Tart Crust, finishing it up with some Black Tea.

The finish was a bit light, but up comes some Light, Malty Smoke, and lingering Fruity Sweet Tea as if I just finished afternoon tea.
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Rating

T8KE Score: 7 – Great

Worth the Price? At it's current MSRP of about ￥8380 (~$53), it's a bit much, but you can easily find it for around ￥5500~6000 (~$38) at most liquor stores, or even Bic Cameras and Don Quixotes around Tokyo, which then I'd say is an instant buy if this bottle interests you.

Will I buy another bottle? I always keep a bottle on hand for when I run out of the last one~
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My Previous Reviews

1. Kavalan Blender's Reserve No.1 & No.2

Hi all, I'm here with a few whiskies from Sakurao, specifically some of their single cask whiskies! 

I've written a bit about the Sakurao Distillery when writing about their other products (such as some Togouchis and Miyanoshika), but here's a recap:

Sakurao started out as a sake brewery in Hiroshima, and had been operating since 1918. In 2017, around the 99th anniversary of their founding, they decided to take a huge leap of faith into the liquor market by starting their own distillery.

They've had some scandal regarding 'fake' Japanese whiskies in the past, where they blended mystery sourced whiskies with Japanese water and slapped a 'Japanese whisky' label on them to be sold to foreign markets. But that's in the past now, as they have ceased with this behavior since the founding of the JSLMA.

Nowadays, they're a real, JSLMA abiding distillery that primarily focus on a wide variety of cask aged single malts & cask finished blended whiskies, both peated and non-peated.

Their main products these days are their Sakurao single malts (aged in their Sakurao cellar by the sea, often with a hint of salinity) and their Togouchi single malts (aged in a former JR tunnel in the mountains, often with gentle fruitiness). Both of these are distilled in Sakurao's distillery in Hiroshima, but are aged in different cellars.

I got these Sakurao drams when I attended a Japanese whisky event in Taiwan a while ago.  Since they're all Sakurao, I figured U could group them together in a single post instead of writing them one by one!

Details in comments!

Hi all, I'm here with more Suntory whisky, and this one the third and final bottle from their first "Essence of Suntory Whisky" release!

As written in a prior post, the "Essence of Suntory Whisky" were a series of special releases from Suntory, featuring experimental and atypical whiskies from each of their distilleries. 

The first release of this series from 2018, with the motif 創・遊・夢 (Creation, Fun/Journey, Dream), featuring the Hakushu Rye Type, the Red Wine Cask Chita, and finally this bottle here- Yamazaki Peated Malt!

Details in comments!

(Something was weird with the pic upload, sorry for reposting)

Hi all, I'm here with more Suntory whisky, and this one is their very regular NAS Chita!

I got this bottle primarily for experimental purposes. A few friends and I are planning to do a series of blending experiments some time in the near future, and are considering a base whisky for the blending. 

Originally we're more leaning towards grabbing a Toki, but somehow all the Tokis in the various liquor shops I've visited have sold out. I guess I had to make a compromise and go for Chita instead lmao.

I'm just going to skip to the conclusion and say don't get this one, it's not good.

Details in comments anyways!

My collection

Hi all, I'm here with more Suntory whisky, and this time it's a rather obscure version of their blended whisky Suntory Reserve!

Created in 1969, the Suntory Reserve is the third and final member of Suntory's long lasting low to mid shelfer staples, situated above the Suntory Old (details here) but below the Suntory Royals (details part 1, part 2).

Suntory Reserve had distinct feature- where the Suntory Old series were a blended whisky with focus on (typically younger) Yamazaki sherry casks, the Suntory Reserve series (specifically the 1989~ versions) were a blended whisky with focus on Hakushu casks (particularly white oak). As for the Suntory Royals, well, they were more or less a blend of every Yamazaki and Hakushu casks that didn't make the cut to become single malts or Hibiki. 

This specific Suntory Reserve is one of the rarer, age statement versions released around the 2000s, and contained Suntory whiskies (primarily Hakushu and Chita) as old as 15 years of age!

Details in Comments!

Hi all, I'm here with more Suntory whisky, this time another Hakushu!

Similar to the Yamazaki 10 yr, Suntory also made a younger, more economic version for their staple Hakushu 12 yr- the Hakushu 10 yr, first released in 1998.

However, the Hakushus proved to be more popular than Suntory had initially anticipated, and soon Suntory began running low on Hakushu stock whiskies, which already had a lower reserve due to production cuts during the 90s whisky glut.

Ultimately, Suntory decided to slash the Hakushu 10 yr to keep the Hakushu 12 yr on shelves (for a bit longer), and the Hakushu 10 yr series were terminated in 2013.

This bottle here is one of the later releases, from between 2007~2013!

Details in comments!

Hi all, I'm here with more Suntory whisky, and it's another interesting whisky from their experimental "Essence of Suntory Whisky" Series!

This one here is another bottle from the first 'The Essence of Suntory Whisky' release, and it's the Chita bottle from the series!

Here's a bit of background on the Chita:

The Chita Distillery, located on the Chita Peninsula, had been the quiet backbone of Suntory's many blended products since its completion in 1973.  The most notable things about the distillery were that it *exclusively* used corn as raw material to produce distillates, and of course its gigantic continuous still (pic 3 for the still's model, one of the four columns).

Chita's continuous still, standing at a height of 30 meters (98 ft), was internally fitted with multiple specialized columns (wash column, extraction column, rectifying column, and purifying column) for distillation. Without getting into too much detail, three main types of corn distillates were produced from the still, utilizing a combination of different columns. The distillates, classified as heavy, medium and light, were then filled into casks (mostly white oak but also a few in sherry casks) and shipped to Yamazaki or Hakushu's cellars for aging.

Typically, Chita's corn distillates serve as the basis of Suntory's blended whisky products, such as Suntory Old, Suntory Reserve, Suntory Royal, Toki, and the fancier blends like the Hibikis. They have also released the NAS Chita Single Grain Whisky as a staple shelfer, though that one didn't typically garner the same fanfare as Suntory's single malts or blended Hibikis.

Back to the whisky- this Essence of Suntory Whisky bottle was one of the very few high aged Chita releases, with a  wine cask finish!

Details in comments!

Hi all, I'm here with another Suntory whisky, and it's another Yamazaki!

This whisky here is Suntory's Yamazaki Pure Malt 10 yr, the earlier version of the Yamazaki 10 yr product line which was released between 1995 to around 2015. Originally released as a younger, lower cost alternative to the regular shelfer Yamazaki 12 yr, it ironically ended up becoming notably more expensive (roughly 2x or more) than its older brother today due to being discontinued.

Details in comments!

I picked up the latest bottle from the 24 Solar Terms series, Spring Equinox (Shinbun), while in Japan last month.

I couldn't find much information about the cask makeup, but eventually stumbled on this website that publishes the cask breakdown and ages of each release. I thought it was great to see, it would be helpful if more distilleries could be this transparent, especially for these NAS releases.

Included are PPM levels, cask breakdown, and age range of casks used.

It was interesting to see this release has higher amounts of mizunara and minimal peat (less than 10 PPM).

Hi all, I'm here with more Suntory whisky, and it's another interesting whisky from their experimental "Essence of Suntory Whisky" Series!

This bottle here was from the first series release from 2018, when Suntory really went full experimental and created three very atypical whiskies from each of their distilleries. They even got the prominent calligrapher Tansetsu Ogino (who also penned the calligraphy for the label of Suntory's flagship blended whisky 'Hibiki' and grain whisky 'Chita') to pen the labels for this series, which reads as  創・遊・夢 (Creation, Fun/Journey, Dream).

From Yamazaki, there's the heavily peated 'Yamazaki peated malt'. From Chita, there's the 'Chita Wine Cask', one of their very rare, highly aged single grain Chita releases. Finally, from Hakushu, there's this bottle- a 6 year old, cask strength rye whisky!

That's right, Hakushu made a rye!

Details in comments!