Ichiro’s Malt Chichibu Peated The US Edition 2021

Japanese whisky uses to be more familiar to me than bourbon. During my twice annual trips to the Land of the Rising Sun. I spend many non-work hours pounding the pavement in search of increasingly elusive bottles. Back at home, I read blogs and frequented message boards dedicate to the category. I try to stay on top of new releases as best I could. Across the vast expanse of the Pacific Ocean and the even wider chasm of my lack of comprehension of Japanese. Ichiro’s Malt Chichibu Peated

Slowly, I got turn off Japanese whisky. It started with the disappearance of core expressions from the big distilling concerns. Suntory and Nikka principally and the significant price increases for what remained (Yamazaki 12 went from $80 to $120+). The gaps on store shelves were filled by bottles of repurposed Scotch whisky. Cynically dressed up with Kanji and Nihonga images in an attempted exploitation of the Japanese whisky hype bubble.