【Setouchi Distillery's “Lemon Gin” has an excellent reputation】
【The distillery is actually a whisky distillery】
【New Make aged for a year in sherry casks】
【Slightly alcoholic, with strong sherry flavors, surprisingly good】
【Special price when purchased with Lemon Gin】
ZTJ136 - Setouchi New Born Aged 1 Year Whisky
Price：$650/Bottle
Region : Japan
Alcohol : 47%
Volume：700ml
Building a whisky distillery from scratch: finding land for the building, buying distillation equipment, purchasing large quantities of oak wood, training staff ...... Each step requires a large investment, and the worst part is that the whisky has to mature for at least three years before it can be bottled and sold, which makes the first three years of the whisky distillery's life a “pay-as-you-go, no-pay” day! This makes the first three years of a whisky distillery's existence a “money-spinning” period. In order to minimize the risk, many new whisky distilleries in Japan distill gin at the same time, so that it does not need to age and can be bottled and sold immediately. However, as gin is only a sideline, not many whisky distilleries are successful in the gin business, and Setouchi Distillery is one of the rare exceptions.
Setouchi Distillery, located in Kure City, Hiroshima, was founded by Miyake Honten, the owner of the “Chifuku” sake sake handle, and launched the “Setouchi Lemon Gin” product at the end of 2021, which has been extremely popular in Japan, Europe, the United States and Hong Kong due to its extremely high price/performance ratio, and is so popular that when one thinks of Setouchi, one only thinks of its Lemon Gin, even if no one knows that its main business is “whisky. After a long wait, Setouchi has launched a whisky product!
“Setouchi is positioned as a boutique whisky, and its production scale is quite small, with only 200-250 liters of 63%-68% spirit per distillation (in comparison, Nagahama Distillery, which is now known as the smallest whisky distillery in Japan, produces 500 liters of spirit per distillation). However, due to the scarcity of production, the distillery's 100% product is aged in expensive sherry casks. This time, we are introducing Setouchi's New Make, which was aged for one year in Oloroso sherry casks and bottled at 47 degrees. It was limited to 600 bottles in Japan and sold out quickly. We managed to get our hands on a handful of bottles, so if you're interested in getting a taste of New Make, here's your chance!
The nose is quite heavy at the beginning, but after getting used to it, the aroma is sweet and sour with dried fruits. The body is thin and the feeling of new wine in the mouth is much lower than expected, the flavor is caramel, ripe fruit, dark chocolate and other sherry cask flavors, and there is a quite prominent peel acidity in the end. Although only aged for a year, this is a surprisingly drinkable wine and one to look forward to in the future!
