Prices
Prices and stock come from each retailer's website. Check with the store before you buy.
More from this distillery: All Fuji (Kirin) whiskies and prices
About
What it is
Released in June 2022 as part of Kirin's Fuji range from the Fuji Gotemba Distillery. Bottled at 43%. Single blended means a blend of malt and grain whiskies made entirely at one distillery, and Kirin applied for and received the first such designation approved in Japan for this product.
Where it comes from
Kirin states that the Fuji range is made exclusively from whiskies produced at the Fuji Gotemba Distillery. That's a producer statement covering distillation, maturation and bottling in one place, which is what the Japan Spirits and Liqueurs Makers Association standard requires. No imported whisky.
How it's made
Fuji Gotemba opened in 1973 as a joint venture between Kirin, Seagram and Chivas Brothers, and it's one of very few distilleries anywhere that makes both malt and grain whisky on site and handles everything from mashing to bottling. That inheritance means it has Scotch, American and Canadian production knowledge built into the same plant. The grain side runs three different still types producing light, medium and heavy styles, which is unusual anywhere in the world. Master blender Jota Tanaka puts the range together.
What to expect
Softer and rounder than most Japanese blends at this price. Orchard fruit, vanilla and a creamy texture from the grain component, with the malt adding structure rather than dominating. It's a whisky built around balance rather than a single loud characteristic.
How it compares
Against Fuji Single Grain and Fuji Single Malt, the other two in the range, this is the one showing what the distillery does when it combines both. Kirin released the grain first in 2020, this in 2022 and the malt in 2023. Against Suntory Toki or Hibiki Harmony, the Fuji blends come from one distillery rather than three, which is a genuinely different approach.
