Karuizawa – 1960/2013 52 Year Old Sherry Hogshead #5627 (70cl, 51.8%)

Karuizawa 1960/2013 is a 52-year-old single cask Japanese single malt from the closed Karuizawa distillery. It was distilled on 1 February 1960, matured in Sherry hogshead #5627 and bottled on 1 January 2013 at 51.8%, in a 70cl bottle. At the time it became the oldest Japanese single malt to be bottled. The release was 41 bottles, each individually named rather than numbered and accompanied by a katabori netsuke carved from the oak head of the cask. The labels are Washi paper, hand-painted by the calligrapher Soji Nishimoto. The packaging is inspired by Japanese puzzle boxes, with an inner Wenge wood case inlaid with fragments of the cask.