Karuizawa Black – Ocean Whisky

The Karuizawa Black is a historic blended Japanese whisky produced by the Sanraku-Ocean Co., Ltd. and bottled around 1986. During this era, the Karuizawa distillery (founded in 1955) was still primarily producing liquid for blends rather than the high-end single malts it is world-famous for today.

This specific blend is composed of malt whisky from Karuizawa and grain whisky from the Yamanashi distillery. Since Karuizawa was permanently closed in 2011 and demolished in 2016, even entry-level blends like "Black Ocean" have become desirable collectors' items as they contain some of the original, now-extinct distillery liquid.