This is the final installment of the Akkeshi NEW BORN FOUNDATION series, and the long-awaited fourth volume was released on August 29.
The first non-peat, the second heavy peat, and the third Mizunara, previously malt whiskey from Akkeshi, but this time it will be malt & grain, blended whiskey as announced.
Akkeshi NEW BORN FOUNDATIONS 1 bourbon cask non-peated (released on 2/27/2018)
Akkeshi NEW BORN FOUNDATIONS 2 Bourbon Barrel Peated (released on 8/28/2018)
Akkeshi NEW BORN FOUNDATIONS 3 Mizunara (released on 3/5/2019)
Akkeshi NEW BORN FOUNDATIONS 4 Blended (released 8/29/2019)
The malt content of interest is over 60%! More than half of them contain sherry cask-aged malt.
1. Company
Kenten Jitsugyo Co.
2. Distillery
Akkeshi Distillery
(Started operation in 2016)
Hokkaido’s second whisky distillery aiming to make whisky like Islay malt
Akkeshi Distillery opened in 2016 with a strong desire to “make whisky like Islay malt using the traditional Scottish process. The equipment is made by Forsyth’s of Scotland.
Like the whiskey made on Islay, the distillery uses water that has passed through peat layers as its brewing water, and the whiskey is matured daily in Akkeshi, a cool, wet, and sea-breezed place. Akkeshi Distillery, 4-109-2 Miyazono, Akkeshi-cho, Akkeshi-gun, Hokkaido, 088-1124, Japan *Tours of the distillery are organized by the “Akkeshi Taste Terminal Conchigliere.
For details, please see this page.
http://www.conchiglie.net/tour/whiskey/
３．Product Name
Akkeshi NEW BORN FOUNDATIONS 4
４．Whisky characteristics
Blended whiskey with 60% malt
Blended malt and grain aged for 13 to 30 months in sherry casks and other types of casks. Malt, which accounts for more than 60% of the blend, is distilled and aged only at the Akkeshi Distillery. The grain is made from Scottish newmake, casked at the Akkeshi distillery, and matured in the Akkeshi environment.
More than 50% of the malt is aged in sherry casks. Similarly, more than 5% of the malt is made from Hokkaido barley malt (ryofu). The flavor of this malt is designed for you to enjoy a relaxing and leisurely time while feeling the earth of Hokkaido.
The tasting notes on the manufacturer’s website are as follows
Aroma: Tangerine, citrus, raisins, banana, maple syrup-like sweetness
Taste: Raisin butter, marmalade sweetness with salty caramel-like saltiness
Lingering: Spicy white pepper, dark chocolate-like bitterness and sweetness
Type: Blended
Ingredients: Malt, Grain
Alcohol Content: 48% alcohol by volume
５．Awards
６．Price
Retail price: 3,800 yen (4,104 yen including tax)
Capacity: 200 ml
We checked the sales situation on mail order sites such as Rakuten and amazon, and found that the product is sold at a price of about 8,000-10,000 yen, which is already at a premium of about 2 to 3 times the regular price. (As of September 11, 2019)
Price offered at DiningBar Hidden Lounge
45 ml: 4,500 yen
30ml: 3000 yen
15ml: 1500 yen
DiningBar Hidden Lounge sells this valuable whisky.
７．Finally
Try drinking it straight, with a small amount of water added to taste, or try it on the rocks. If you drink it slowly over a long period of time, the aroma will bloom and you will enjoy it even more.
It goes well with oysters, a specialty of the town of Akkeshi, and if you put a few drops on raw oysters on the shell, you can enjoy the aroma of the sea as the flavor of the oysters harmonizes with each other.
This way of enjoying oysters is also a familiar custom on Islay. Why don’t you try this luxury like in the holy land of Scotch?
The ideal distillery of the Akkeshi Distillery is to produce whisky entirely from Akkeshi, from the barley and peat used to make the whisky to the barrels in which the whisky is aged.
The full-fledged 3-year-old single malt whiskey is scheduled to finally debut around the time of the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Attention and expectations for the future development of ” Akkeshi Malt Whisky,” which aims to be a Japanese Islay malt, will only increase.
