Prices
Prices and stock come from each retailer's website. Check with the store before you buy.
About
What it is
The second annual cask strength single malt from Yuza Distillery in Yamagata, released in October 2022 at 62%. It draws on casks filled during the distillery's first full production season, February to July 2019. Non-chill filtered, no colour added.
Where it comes from
Yuza started distilling on 1 November 2018, the first whisky distillery in Yamagata Prefecture, built by Kinryu Corporation, itself founded by nine local sake brewers. Both the First and Second Editions are confirmed compliant with the Japan Spirits and Liqueurs Makers Association standard. Single malt, distilled and matured entirely on site.
How it's made
The story here is genuinely unusual. Founder Masaharu Sasaki deliberately hired two young women from Yamagata University with no prior spirits experience, reasoning that an industry veteran would bring their own established style and dominate the distillery's character before it had formed one. Forsyths built the stills and ran the training. The setup is Scottish throughout: Canadian Douglas fir washbacks, a spirit still modelled on Glendronach's, and water from Mount Chokai snowmelt. The distillery operates under a concept it calls TLAS, tiny, lovely, authentic and supreme, and it has refused to sell new make or newborn spirit, releasing only fully matured single malt. This edition uses ex-bourbon and ex-sherry casks with a lightly peated component.
What to expect
Powerful but surprisingly creamy. Dried fruit on the nose, then juicy apple, peach and pear, with vanilla sweetness and a light thread of smoke. The finish is mellow and fruit-driven. At 62% it needs water, at which point it opens considerably.
How it compares
Against the First Edition, limited to 8,500 bottles at 61% from bourbon barrels only, the Second brings sherry into the mix. Against Chichibu or Kanosuke at similar ages, Yuza is the most conservative and Scottish of the three in method, and the most precise in style.
