Ichiro's Malt Chichibu Distillery II

Single Malt Japanese Whisky 
Distillery Bottling 70cl / 55.5%

The first European release from Chichibu Distillery II! Chichibu II Japanese single malt whisky has been in the offing since 2018, when Ichiro Akuto began construction of a much larger distillery down the road from his original Chichibu premises.

Chichibu II commenced distillation in 2019, and has a capacity of around 250,000 litres per annum. This is still comparatively very small by Scottish distillery standards, but represents a massive upgrade in potential output from the original distillery. Chichibu II’s stills are the same shape as the original Chichibu’s stills but are five times larger and are direct fired rather than using indirect steam heating, enabling the creation of a very traditional distillate.

This first big bottling of Chichibu II Japanese single malt came from a small batch of mostly ex-bourbon casks aged for four or five years, and has been bottled at a hefty 55.5% strength. This historic bottling from Chichibu II is the start of a great new journey for Chichibu and will be in high demand with Japanese malt whisky fans.