Karuizawa 1964 48 Year Old Wealth Solutions Mini 5cl & Book

The mountain town of Karuizawa is situated on a high plain at the base of active volcano, Mount Asama, in the heart of Japan’s mainland. In 1956, the wine and spirits giant, Daikoku Budoshu, expanded their already established empire there by building a distillery with the onus of producing a single malt to be utilised in the company’s blends. They christened it ‘Ocean’. 1958 saw a freer importation channel opening up for malt, and barley flowed into Japan from the UK. Karuizawa Factory, as it was then known, worked with Golden Promise barley (also famously used by Macallan), and matured their signature spirit in sherry casks, yet very little actually left the country, which in future would lend hugely to its collectability.

During the 1980s and 90s Japan's economy was truly booming, but with this prosperity came a generation of young, trendy and affluent consumers who began to turn their backs on companies they deemed “old fashioned”. Instead, their attentions turned to wines, with only low grade, neutral tasting whiskies managing to find any favour as mixing fodder. The relatively small Karuizawa distillery, with its robust and characterful style, never stood a chance, and in the year 2000 it was sadly mothballed (and completely demolished in 2016).

Jumping ahead to 2007, independent bottler Number One Drinks acquired the distillery's remaining stocks, and imported Ocean Karuizawa Distillery whisky (as it was re-branded to in 1977) for the European market. The rarity of official expressions, and the now finite supply made for an explosive combination in the world of rare whisky, with die-hard collectors clamouring to get hold of any releases, and driving a buoyant second hand market. The rest, as they say, is history.

This is the highly sought after Karuizawa 1964. This extremely rare whisky has been in a 400 litre Sherry butt for just over 48 years before being bottled. At the time, this was the oldest release from this cult distillery with just 143 bottles from the cask.

The presentation is absolutely top-notch: a bespoke, heavyweight version of the traditional Karuizawa bottle is housed in a beautiful wooden box with a front made of Polish black fossil oak with the characters for “Karuizawa” engraved in it. The wood is hundreds of years old and has been recovered from ancient Polish swamps – this is a reference to the last character in the name “Karuizawa”, which means “swamp”.

This miniature also comes with a book, detailing the distillery and tasting notes.

Distilled: 01.09.1964

Bottled: 24.12.2012

Age: 48 Years Old

Cask Type: Sherry Cask

Cask Number: 3603

57.7% ABV / 5cl

Please note some wax seals are prone to cracking in varying temperatures and transport conditions, therefore - as stated in our terms and conditions - we do not accept liability should these seals be found to show signs of splitting on delivery.

Please examine all images of the lot, any packaging and labels carefully and satisfy yourself as to their condition before making a bid.