Prices
Prices and stock come from each retailer's website. Check with the store before you buy.
More from this distillery: All Nagahama whiskies and prices
About
What it is
The first release from Nagahama Distillery, out in December 2018. Amahagan is Nagahama spelled backwards, and it's the name for the blended malt range the distillery uses while its own single malt matures. Bottled at 47%, no age statement.
Where it comes from
Nagahama has been straight about this from day one. The distillery only opened in 2016, so it had nothing old enough to sell, and the World Malt series blends imported malt whisky, mainly Scottish Highland, with Nagahama's own young malt. That means it doesn't meet the Japan Spirits and Liqueurs Makers Association standard, which requires distillation in Japan. The specific overseas source isn't named.
This matters because the alternative, used by a fair few producers, is to sell the same thing with Japanese on the label and say nothing. Nagahama put the words World Malt on the front.
How it's made
Nagahama sits on the site of a craft brewery on the shore of Lake Biwa and runs the smallest stills in Japan, nicknamed alembics for their shape, in a room about the size of a large bedroom. The short lyne arms produce a thick, malty new make. The whole Amahagan project was set up as blending practice ahead of a proper Nagahama single malt, which is an unusually candid reason to put a product on shelves. No cask breakdown is published for this edition.
What to expect
Malt-forward and sweet. Orange, apple, vanilla and a nutty, biscuity character, with the higher strength giving it more grip than the price suggests. There's a young, grassy note underneath that's the Nagahama component, and whether you read that as raw or as interesting depends on your tolerance for young whisky.
How it compares
This is the base of the range with no cask finish on top. No.2 is the same blend in red wine wood, No.3 in mizunara, No.4 in yamazakura. If you want to understand what those finishes are doing, start here. Against Hatozaki Pure Malt you're in similar territory, a Japanese producer working with imported malt and being upfront about it.
