Takamine 17 yr 'Koji' Whiskey 750ml

The Shinozaki family brings generations of expertise in sake making and koji fermentation to their distillery in Fukuoka, where they began producing shochu in 1979. After roughly two decades refining that craft, they turned their attention to whiskey, applying the same koji-fermentation techniques used for over a century in Japanese fermentation to honor Dr. Jokichi Takamine, the chemist who first pioneered the process for whiskey in America back in 1891.

This expression is distilled entirely from polished barley fermented with white koji and native Fukuoka yeast rather than through conventional malting. The spirit is double distilled on pot stills, proofed between runs to a natural strength near 45%, and enters the cask undiluted. Aging takes place inside a converted municipal rice bunker with thick concrete walls, an environment that creates unusually graceful maturation even in Japan's warm climate. This particular release draws on a rare parcel of heavily aged barrels, selected from some of the distillery's earliest experiments with the process.

The palate reveals coconut, banana bread, and dates, layered with tobacco, vanilla, and buttery oak. The mouthfeel is silky and smooth, while the finish runs long and rewarding, with a sweet, almost creamy quality. This is a rich, contemplative whiskey best enjoyed neat, slowly, to let its full depth unfold.