Prices
Prices and stock come from each retailer's website. Check with the store before you buy.
More from this distillery: All Kanosuke whiskies and prices
About
What it is
A blend of Kanosuke single malt and Hioki pot still whisky, both made by the Komasa family in Kagoshima. Bottled at 53%, no age statement, non-chill filtered and no colour added. Kanosuke calls it a blended whisky rather than a blended malt, because the Hioki component uses unmalted barley alongside malted.
Where it comes from
Kanosuke states on its own site that this is made exclusively from two house-distilled spirits. Both distilleries are in Kagoshima, so everything in the bottle is Japanese, with no sourced or imported component. That's a producer statement rather than a retailer's claim, which matters in this category.
How it's made
Kanosuke distils lightly peated single malt through three copper pot stills. Hioki, the sister distillery and the older of the two, runs stainless steel pot stills and works with a mix of malted and unmalted barley. Both components mature at Kanosuke for roughly three to five years across new American oak, sherry casks, ex-bourbon, and re-charred casks that previously held Mellowed Kozuru, the family's cask-aged rice shochu. Those shochu casks are the signature and behave close to virgin oak after the re-char.
What to expect
Vanilla, melon, apricot and lemongrass on the nose, then a richer palate with clove, black tea and orange. The finish is oaky and pleasantly bitter. At 53% it has real presence, and the shochu casks give it a woody, almost lumber-like note that you won't find anywhere else.
How it compares
Against the Kanosuke single malts, this is broader and less intense, and considerably easier to buy. There's also a 2025 Limited Edition at 59% that adds rum cask matured whisky to the mix. Against Nikka's blends, the difference is that everything here is made by one family in one prefecture.
