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
Released on 30 March 2021, Inazuma is a blended malt made jointly by Nagahama Distillery in Shiga and Saburomaru Distillery in Toyama, bottled at 47%. It was billed as the first collaboration whisky between Japanese craft distilleries, and the label features two birds, one native to each distillery's home.
Where it comes from
Worth reading carefully. Inazuma combines unpeated malt distilled at Nagahama, peated malt distilled at Saburomaru, and selected malt from overseas. That third component means it can't meet the Japan Spirits and Liqueurs Makers Association standard, which requires distillation in Japan. Nagahama stated the composition openly at release rather than leaving it to be discovered.
The Japanese whisky industry is unusually vertically integrated, with companies owning their distilleries and their brands and almost never trading stock with each other, which is precisely why a cask swap between two small producers was newsworthy.
How it's made
Nagahama runs Japan's smallest stills and produces a thick, malty unpeated spirit. Saburomaru, run by blender Takahiko Inagaki, works with heavily peated malt and is known for it. The two blenders each put out releases from the shared stock. The overseas malt fills out the middle. Cask detail isn't published.
What to expect
Malty sweetness from the Nagahama component with smoke from the Saburomaru side, and a floral, spiced character running through it. At 47% it has enough weight to carry both halves without either winning.
How it compares
Against the Amahagan World Malt range, also from Nagahama, this is a more interesting version of the same imported malt approach because two Japanese distilleries are in the mix. Against Nagahama's own single malts, those are the pure distillery expression. A second Inazuma release, Extra Selected, came out alongside this one.
