Amahagan World Malt Edition No.2 Red Wine Wood

What it is

Amahagan is Nagahama Distillery's blended malt range, and the name is Nagahama spelled backwards. Edition No.2 is the second release, launched in May 2019, and it's the No.1 blend given a finish in red wine casks. Bottled at 47%, not chill filtered, no colour added.

Where it comes from

Nagahama has never pretended this is Japanese whisky. The World Malt series exists because the distillery only opened in 2016 and had nothing old enough to sell, so it blends imported malt whisky, mainly Scottish Highland, with its own young malt and new make. That means it doesn't meet the Japan Spirits and Liqueurs Makers Association standard, which requires distillation in Japan, and Nagahama says so rather than hiding behind the word Japanese on a label. The imported component isn't named.

How it's made

Nagahama runs the smallest stills in the country, in a room you could park a car in, with very short lyne arms that produce a thick, malty new make. The whole Amahagan project was set up as blending practice ahead of releasing a proper Nagahama single malt, which is an unusually honest reason to put a product on the market. The red wine casks used for this edition are Japanese. Length of the finish isn't disclosed.

What to expect

Sweet and jammy, with the wine casks doing most of the talking. Raisin, red berries and a bit of tannic grip, then cinnamon and pepper. There's a young, grainy sweetness underneath that's the Nagahama component showing through, and whether that reads as rough or characterful depends on your patience for young whisky.

How it compares

The Amahagan editions are numbered by cask finish rather than by quality, so No.2 isn't a step up from No.1, it's the same base in red wine wood. No.3 uses mizunara and No.4 uses yamazakura. If you want the version without a finish, that's No.1. Against something like Hatozaki Pure Malt you're in similar territory: a Japanese producer blending imported malt and being reasonably open about it.