Ichiro's Malt & Grain World Blended Whisky

When we think of Japanese whisky, the distilleries and brands of Suntory and Nikka usually come to mind. Ichiro Akuto, however, is the multi-award winning rock star bottler, blender, and founder of Chichibu (the first new Japanese distillery in 35 years when it started producing in 2008) who’s done more than anyone to disrupt that duopoly and lead a new wave of independent Japanese whisky makers.

The Ichiro's Malt brand actually pre-dates his distillery, and was used to bottle the final casks from his grandfather’s closed distillery of Hanyu, which became the stuff of – extremely valuable – legend. (Incredibly, Ichiro rescued these casks from being reprocessed into shochu when the family business was sold!) In this set we have Ichiro’s fascinating ‘world blend’, bringing together whiskies from America, Canada, Scotland, and Ireland, alongside Chichibu!