March 2022 bottles: Far East of Peat, Gaiaflow Blended M, Chichibu The Peated 2022, Kanosuke Artist Edition

Today we take a look at new bottles out of the Eigashima x Wakatsuru Saburomaru crossover, Gaiaflow’s first world whisky using Shizuoka malt, the latest major Chichibu, and a special “Artist Edition” Kanosuke Single Malt. 

Far East of Peat Third Batch Blended Malt Japanese Whisky

A bit late to the game reporting on these, but here’s another round of bottles resulting from a stock swap between Nagahama Distillery and Wakatsuru Saburomaru Distillery. These come about a year after the first bottles.

Far East of Peat Third Batch uses heavily peated malt whisky from Wakatsuru Saburomaru distilled back in 2018, plus Eigashima Shuzo’s White Oak Distillery lightly peated malt aged in a Bourbon cask. 50% abv, 700ml, and it’s already available. And probably sold out, with only 600 bottles in the release. 16,500 yen including tax.

Far East of Peat Fourth Batch Blended Malt Whisky

This bottle essentially adds Scotch malt whisky to the above two, thus making it drastically cheaper and widely available. 6,985 yen including tax for 700ml, 50% abv, and 5000 bottles in the release.

Gaiaflow Whisky Blended M

Speak of world blends, Gaiaflow now has its own, and it’s called “Gaiaflow Blended M.”

Blended M combines:

• 3-year aged non-peated, Japan-grown malt distilled using the former Karuizawa still (“K”)
• 3-year aged non-peated, Japan-grown malt distilled using the wood direct-fired still (“W”)
• Malt whisky from the UK
• Grain whisky from the UK

Steer clear if you’re looking for a purely Japanese whisky, but if not, it’s still a decent and quite affordable dram. 48% abv, 700ml, and it’s 3,600 yen before tax. 5555 bottles in the initial release in late February, so there’s still plenty floating around.

Ichiro’s Malt Chichibu The Peated 2022

The 2022 edition of Chichibu’s The Peated is upon us, and it was released in late February as well.

Light custard, and a fruitiness that slides off the surface. Black tea on the palate

…is what the official tasting notes say. I’ve had this one as well, and it has a great balance of Chichibu-ness with peat, so definitely one to keep an eye out for. 14850 yen with tax.

Single Malt Kanosuke Artist Edition #001

Kanosuke Distillery, who recently cleaned up at WWA2022, including best Japanese NAS Single Malt for the Distillery Exclusive #001, has announced the release of #001 of Single Malt Kanosuke Artist Edition.

In what will presumably be a series, we are completely absent of any details of what Artist Edition #001 will have inside the bottle. Or how much it will cost.

What we do know is that it will be released on March 28, 2022 via a single sales channel: only to liquor stores that have special contracts with Komasa Jyozo to sell their Kura no Shikon shochu. It won’t be sold online or at the Kanosuke Distillery.

So where is Kura no Shikon sold? Well, luckily here’s a list of those shops.  But Kanosuke Distillery has said not all shops that sell Kura no Shikon will sell Artist Edition #001.

With Artist Edition, there are now three different numbering schemes for Kanosuke Distillery single malt releases…

• Official releases like “2021 First Edition” and “2021 Second Edition.” Is the next one “2022 Third Edition” or “2022 First Edition?”
• Distillery exclusives, #001 and #002 for example. These are officially sold only at the distillery, but the distillery does online lotteries for these bottles as well.
• Artist Edition, beginning with #001 here.

Anyway, nobody ever said they have to go in some specific order, but it can be difficult to keep track of what’s what if you’re a collector.