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
The third annual limited edition from Kanosuke, released in 2022 at cask strength, 59%. Unpeated malt distilled between 2017 and 2019, vatted from multiple casks with sherry as the key component. Non-chill filtered, no colour added.
Where it comes from
Kanosuke Distillery sits on Fukiage beach on the west coast of Kagoshima, built in 2017 by Komasa Jyozo, a shochu producer with deep roots in the area. Single malt distilled and matured entirely on site with no imported component. Kanosuke publishes detailed per-product information on its own website, which makes it one of the easier Japanese craft producers to verify.
How it's made
The context is what makes this release interesting. In its first distilling season Kanosuke filled around 100 re-charred ex-Mellowed Kozuru rice shochu casks, 50 ex-bourbon barrels and just 30 oloroso sherry casks. The 2021 First Edition drew on the shochu casks, the Second Edition on bourbon, and this one brings the small sherry parcel forward. All three of the distillery's copper pot stills were used. It took Double Gold at the 2023 San Francisco World Spirits Competition.
What to expect
Grated cinnamon bark and ripe plum on the nose, with baked apple, walnut, damson and sultana, then a robust palate of coffee, vanilla and spicy oak, finishing on black tea and clover honey. At 59% it's assertive and takes water well.
How it compares
Against the 2021 First and Second Editions, this completes a three-part set showing the same young spirit through shochu, bourbon and sherry wood. If you can get all three, it's one of the clearest cask comparisons in Japanese whisky. Against the 2023 Edition, that one switches to peated malt entirely. Against the core Kanosuke Single Malt at 48%, the limited editions are cask strength and considerably scarcer.
