Kirin has announced a new Japanese whisky to join the fold: Single Blended Japanese Whisky Fuji. Unlike Single Grain Fuji, the Blended Fuji contains Japanese malt whisky.
Single Blended isn’t a phrase that’s super common, but it’s applicable here because Kirin makes both grain whisky and malt whisky at their Fuji Gotemba Distillery (it’s now officially named the Mt. Fuji Distillery in English). Since all the juice in this bottle is made and matured there, they’ve labeled it “single.” While I’m not sure it’s a phrase that will catch on, more and more distilleries in Japan are making both malt and grain whisky in one location. Just off the top of my head, I know Hakushu, Tsunuki, Yasato, Miyagikyo, and Sakurao are all doing this now.
Single Blended Whisky Fuji looks to be going after the same mid-tier as Single Grain Fuji. I say that because it has the same price of 6,600 yen. That gets you 700ml at 43% abv. For a bonafide Japanese whisky, even one that’s NAS, that seems like a bargain these days. Hopefully it will deliver flavor-wise. We’ll need to wait until June 7, 2022 to find out, because that’s when Single Blended Fuji lands in stores. Kirin plans to ship around 50,000 bottles of this stuff in 2022, so hopefully it will be fairly easy to find.
Apart from the regular release, the company also announced a special edition dubbed “Single Blended Japanese Whisky Fuji 2022 Masterpiece.” This one was apparently already released at the distillery shop, and it also lands on Kirin’s DRINX webstore on April 19, 2022. Kirin hasn’t provided any details about how this is a masterpiece, but it damn well better be because it costs 54,780 yen, over eight times the standard release. 50% abv, 700ml, and 1000 bottles.
Hot on the heels of their announcement of entering the US market with Single Grain Fuji, Kirin is also entering China and Australia in April. Single Grain Fuji will go for around 680元 and A$108 respectively.
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