You may already be aware that January is Karuizawa month. In our last post, we introduced the story behind Karuizawa, and its success in the whisky market. Now, allow us to introduce a few Karuizawa bottles that might interest your taste buds.
Number One Drinks Company have done us whisky fans an amazing service, by acquiring the remaining stock from closed down distilleries – including Karuizawa! If you haven’t heard about Number One Drinks Company, you might like to read more about them here This bottle is from the 1981 vintage, matured in sherry cask, and bottled at cask strength. This is as classic as Karuizawa comes!
The Noh series is another popular series of Karuizawa. Noh, of course, being a traditional Japanese puppet theater. This series of bottles, with its colorful labels, is becoming increasingly rare. Distilled in 1989 and bottled at cask strength by, yet again, Number One Drinks Company, the Karuizawa Noh 1989 is a must for any collector of Karuizawa.
The label of Karuizawa Story Ocean Whisky states, “The mist and wind of Karuizawa furnish the best surroundings for whisky making”. This bottle was actually released under the Sanraku-Ocean label – one of the many names of the companies that owned the Karuizawa distillery during its existence. You don’t see this bottle that often, making it hard to acquire, and essentially a rare item. Blended.
Karuizawa Cask Strength 1st, 2nd 3rd and 4th Release
Not one, but four bottles of Karuizawa, cask strength, for the price of one. Need we say more? Matured in Sherry Butts and bottled in 1999 and 2000, this puts these particular bottles among the very last from Karuizawa. Released for sale in Taiwan only, this is a must for the Karuizawa collector.
Finally, if you’d like a small taste of Karuizawa, without that feeling of guilt, you can always grab one of these small 36cl bottles, released in 2003 for baseball team, the Hanshin Tigers. The bottles themselves may fail to reason with those who aren’t big fans of Japanese baseball, but being great value for money, and containing Karuizawa whisky, they’re a no-brainer for any lover of whisky, looking for a quick tipple.
Published: January 17, 2016Author: Henry Baldvin