A newborn of only 4 months old, from a Japanese distillery founded in 2007. The label says this Chichibu was distilled June-July 2008 and bottled October 2008. It was one batch of 400 kg of Braemar barley.
After this release, there have been other limited single malt Chichibu bottlings (new hogshead, double matured and heavily peated).
Chichibu Newborn 4 months 2008
(62,5%, OB 2008, bourbon barrel #126)
Nose: clean and sweet with candy sugar and pear drops. Orchard fruits. Plum eau-de-vie. On the other hand, it’s also slightly spicy, like a good Dutch jenever, which is less typical for new spirit. Also slightly flowery (jasmin?).
Mouth: strong, big notes of muesli and oats, some dried apricots. Hints of grappa. Also a faint earthy element (nice to see this in new-make already).
Finish: grainy and quite spirity.
I don’t have the experience to spot a really good new-make among the normal ones, but this Chichibu shows a few notes that I hadn’t seen in new-make before. Simple but promising I would say. Around € 75.
Score: 65/100