Kirin Fuji Gotemba Small Batch 17 Year Old Single Malt Japanese Whisky (700ml)

A relatively hard to find Japanese single malt, produced at Fuji Gotemba distillery, owned by the Kirin Group. Jim Murray described the 15YO expression as "...quality malt of great poise.", so expect good things here. Very limited stocks.

More notes from Stefan Van Eycken at Nonjatta.com as follows... Fuji Gotemba Distillery seems to have shifted gears as far as new releases is concerned...Bottled at 46% (not vatting strength, unfortunately), this continues the recent allergy to single cask releases among Japanese whisky producers. Whereas, as recently as two years ago, you could purchase a single cask Japanese whisky any day of the week pretty much anywhere in the country, the big boys (Suntory, Nikka and Kirin) seem to have made up their mind that single casks are not worth the hassle and that the smallest they will do is a ‘small batch’ release (vague as that descriptor is). The immediate reaction today of whisky fans in Japan was that both of these Small Batch releases are priced way too high. FB was buzzing with complaints that it is no longer feasible for the average Japanese whisky fan to buy Japanese whiskies.