Now we're all probably familiar with Salud Spirits' work with Chichibu, having created numerous highly sought after series from the Intergalactic series to the more recent 7Gods Of Fortune, but if you thought that the Dutch / Austrian spirits retailer was going to stop there - well, they've got something else coming your way.

All ready to get in on the most promising new distilleries coming out of Japan, Salud Spirits is on track to release later this year a Friendship Cask that will inaugurate its burgeoning relationship with Hokkaido-based Akkeshi Distillery - this is probably the first ever Akkeshi that's bottled for Europe, if not at the least most likely the first for Netherlands and Austria. 

Akkeshi has already been making waves as the Islay whisky of Japan, where they've opted to go down a very unique path of being only the second distillery in Hokkaido (now, who can guess who's the first?), and they've done so for a very special reason - peat, of course! Hokkaido is home to peat marshlands, and so the goal for Akkeshi has been to created a fully fully Japanese peated single malt, where everything that goes into the whisky is sourced locally, if not even more specifically from Hokkaido. So to be clear, Akkeshi is breaking away from the usual practice for distilleries outside of Scotland to use imported peat or an ex-Peated whisky barrel - this is going to be purely Hokkaido peat. And that makes them very exciting.

Thus far, the distillery has largely worked on commemorating the traditional Japanese 24 Solar Term calendar (which together makes up a full calendar year), where they've been releasing one expression for each solar term. Aside from that it's been few and far between to find single casks of Akkeshi around, as the distillery is incredibly tight lipped on who gets a cask.

Vignettes from Salud Spirits's trip to Akkeshi.

And so it must be said that it is rather impressive work that Salud Spirits' founder, Maurice, together with Yumiko, were able to through several visits to Akkeshi, convince Akkeshi Master Blender Keiichi Toita to do a joint bottling to celebrate the friendship between Japan and the Netherlands. Salud Spirits says that Toita-san had personally selected the single cask, and had chosen a heavily peated malt aged in a Sherry cask.

The Akkeshi Friendship Cask was distilled in 2022, and was aged for 3 years and 9 months in a PX Sherry cask, and bottled in 2024 at 58% ABV, with only 252 bottles produced.

Let's give it a go!

Whisky Review: Akkeshi Peated Single Malt Japanese Whisky 2022, 3 Year Old, Friendship Cask With Salud Spirits, 58% ABV

Tasting Notes

Colour: Light Gold

Aroma: It opens up immediately floral, with all these intense potpourri aromas of dried florals of roses, lavender and violets. At the same time really buttery and honeyed, it’s giving buttered popcorn even. More on orange blossoms, along with some linseed oil, fresh bed linens, also heaps of dried heather. There’s a little bit of gravel too, and deeper still are guavas and gooseberries. Also some industrial notes of old machinery, beeswax and cement floors. Wow! This is one heck of a nose! Incredibly complex and deeply evocative!

Taste: Medium-bodied, the peat begins to come through in the form of ash - a sweet ash to be specific. It’s coated with honey, vanilla cream and garnished alongside by orange blossoms. It’s really creamy, with a good richness to it. Rather waxy too. There’s a deep sweetness of barley sugar and maltiness at the core.

Finish: More savouriness here, quite a bit of charred meat coming through, though never quite bitter, still always accompanied by a good serving of honey and vanilla cream. The ash is present but subsides to a much gentler tone. That savouriness is rather persistent into a long finish, glossed by equal parts of honey.

My Thoughts

Whilst I'm all for giving each whisky full consideration on its own, I can't help but draw comparisons to 70's Scotch here - that perfumed aroma, buttery and yet also industrial, conveys this old style sensibility to it that is just so nostalgic and divine. It's elegant and expressive, well-structured, without being overpowering, with such an understated complexity about it. It feels rustic and pure, yet here unlike some of the Scotch actually from the 70's, the aromas here are bold and distinct, instead of being light and thin. And then of course there's also those old style green fruits of guavas and gooseberries that complete the old school style.

Into the palate, we find something more classically peated, yet the ashiness here is sweet rather than herbaceous of bitter, really more of a BBQ ash, that's backed up by richer tones of honey and vanilla cream, with a big maltiness to it as well that's just buttery and velvety, giving the body such a fullness and roundedness. The finish sees more of a savouriness develop, of BBQ meats, that carries all the way till the end, always complemented by a wave of honey, that together seems to give roast sweet glazed meats (called char siu locally).

A really impressive Akkeshi, and certainly amongst the best I've had so far from the distillery! Japanese whisky fans, you're going to want to keep a close eye on Akkeshi because this distillery is going places - it won't be long now.

Kanpai!

@111hotpot