Shizuoka – Prologue W (70cl, 55.5%)

Prologue W is the second single malt from Shizuoka Distillery in Japan, bottled at 55.5% in a 70cl bottle. The W refers to the distillery's wood-fired still, one of very few direct-fired stills in the world. The still is heated with firewood from thinned coniferous trees, cut by hand by local woodcutters, reviving a distilling technique more than 200 years old. The whisky is made mainly from Japanese barley malt, Scottish peated malt and beer malt, and is aged for three years. It was released in June 2021 in an edition of 5,000 bottles for the Japanese market. It is described as having a gentle fragrance, a firm body, light smoke and a long, gentle aftertaste.