Hinotori 5 Year Old Blended Japanese Whisky (75cl, 40%)

Hinotori 5 Year Old is a blended Japanese whisky, bottled at 40% ABV in a 750ml bottle. It combines malt and grain whisky aged for five years in oak casks, and it is non-chill filtered. It comes from Hekinan Distillery in Aichi, Japan, which was founded in 1949 and lost to typhoons in the 1950s. Distilling began again in 2019, on the seventieth anniversary of the first distillation, and Hinotori, meaning phoenix, was launched with French spirits house BBC Spirits to mark the revival. The nose is vanilla and orchard fruit with gentle oak. The palate is soft, with honeyed malt, pear and light caramel, leading to a clean, easy finish.