Chichibu 2012 SMWS 7 Year Old 130.4

'New flavours from a distant land'

The Scotch Malt Whisky Society (SMWS) was founded in 1983 by a group of friends lead by tax accountant Phillip ‘Pip’ Hills as a private members club. The concept behind the society was to source casks from all over Scotland which would then be bottled and made available exclusively to its members. Perhaps the most famous feature of these bottles are the unique codes. Each distillery is represented by a different number and the following digits indicate that particular release. That same year, the SMWS set up its first location in Leith’s Vault buildings in Edinburgh where it still stands today.

This whisky was distilled on 26th July 2012 and aged in a single first-fill ex-Bourbon cask for 7 years.

Chichibu distillery in Saitama, Japan was opened in 2008, and was the country’s first new distillery since Suntory opened Hakushu back in 1973. Chichibu was the brainchild of Ichiro Akuto, grandson of the founder of the legendary Hanyu distillery. The Ichiro’s Malt brand appeared in 2005 and rose to fame through the bottling of the last casks from Hanyu, particularly the sought after ‘Card’ series. The first Chichibu releases appeared under it in 2011.

One of 184 bottles.