Members have been asking me for some time whether there will ever be Japanese whiskies at the Society again – now the time has come in Switzerland!
In the current Outturn, I have the honour of presenting the first cask of the 159 distillery to be bottled at the Society – 159.1: Zen and the art of tiramisu. This whisky has a somewhat unconventional history behind it. In early January 2020, 13 casks of whisky distilled at the Shinshu distillery in July 2017 were vatted. These included four new, heavily toasted American white oak hogsheads, each of which could hold around 250 litres of whisky, and nine former bourbon casks, each with a capacity of around 200 litres. On 11 January 2020, this single malt was transferred into new casks, including this American oak refill hogshead, in which the whisky matured for just over three years before being sent to Scotland in the summer of 2023.
The first whisky from the distillery 130 came in a green Society bottle in 2013. Since then, this distillery has remained a rarely seen guest. In the current Outturn you will find the bottling 130.8: White chocolate cherry blossom.
These are just two whiskies from our current selection – if the “exotics” are less appealing to you, there is of course still a significantly larger selection of Scotch whiskies.
With this in mind – Slàinte and Kampai!
Patric Lutz