The Chichibu Distillery
In 2007, Ichiro Akuto, grandson of the founder of the Hanyu distillery, built a new independent family distillery north-west of Tokyo in Saitama province.
Named Chichibu, it put an end to several decades marked by the closure of numerous production sites and enabled Ichiro Akuto to revive his family’s know-how. Despite its small size (capacity of 80,000 LPA/year), Chichibu quickly became the focus of much attention and interest.
It was under the name ‘New Born’ that Ichiro Akuto offered his malt exclusively for 3 years. In 2011, the first small batch edition of Chichibu, called The First (7,400 bottles), was released. The response from distributors and whisky lovers around the world was immediate, putting Chichibu on the royal road of distilleries with strong collectability potential.
Since then, Ichiro Akuto has continued to produce more single casks in response to customer demand, making the distillery even more attractive to collectors.
SHINICHIRO OGATA
Shinichiro Ogata was born and grew up on the island of Kyushu, in the Nagasaki prefecture. His dreams of Tokyo and creating a space of his own brought him to the big city where he joined at interior design firm. After New York, it was Paris that Shinichiro Ogata discovered for the first time in the 1990s. These travels sharpened his mind and made him realise that the approach he wanted to create was to be deeply influenced by his origins.
Shinichiro Ogata's philosophy is embedded in a very personal approach: draw from Japanese tradition, and reinterpret it to make it relevant to our modern times, hoping to preserve crafts that are currently on the brink of extinction. His first field of expression was through a restaurant, and in 1998 he opened Higashiyama in Tokyo, where gastronomy, crafts and the art of tea were already blending. In the same year, he founded Simplicity, his own design studio, with which he has worked on a wide range of projects, from restaurants and hotels to interior and product design.
Since 2017, Shinishiro Ogata has been living between Tokyo and Paris. Today he is one of the leading exponents of contemporary Japanese design.
CHICHIBU x OGATA PARIS
To design the labels for these two single casks and the wooden display case that houses them, the Chichibu distillery collaborated with Shinichiro Ogata, a renowned Japanese designer and great whisky enthusiast. Referring to two poetic moments of the day, the evocatively-named versions - Akatsuki (Dawn) and Tasogare (Dusk) - that make up this box were both distilled in 2014 and aged in ex-bourbon casks.
Akatsuki and Tasogare feature handcrafted labels printed on washi paper, traditional in the Japanese culture, and each presents a short poem, a sort of nod to the famous Japanese haikus. What’s more, the 2 bottles are elegantly housed in a solid wooden display case, also designed by Shinichiro Ogata, who drew his inspiration from the casks used to age these 2 single malts. The striking aesthetic duality between the natural white oak on the outside of the casks and the heavily charred inside is at the heart of the wooden case, which opens to reveal the 2 bottles.
Reserved for a selection of carefully chosen bars, restaurants and exceptional hotels in France, Italy and Singapore, Akatsuki and Tasogare make up an original duo, full of charm, for discovering Chichibu from two different angles: one fresh, lively and pure; the other suave and shrouded in evanescent peat.
CHICHIBU AKATSUKI
Named Akatsuki (Dawn) for the non-peated version, and Tasogare (Dusk) for the peated version, these two single casks from the Chichibu distillery are presented in a wooden box designed by Japanese designer Shinichiro Ogata. An antinomic duo full of charm, made from the same variety of Concerto barley, with a particularly long fermentation time (80 hours) and aged for 7 years in the same bourbon cask cellar. Akatsuki, the first expression, shows a freshness and purity of expression whose clarity evokes that of the glow that precedes sunrise.
Nose: fine, complex. Scents of honeysuckle, vanilla, candied lemon and acacia honey give the aromatic palette a noble quality. Subtle spices, porridge and exotic fruit aromas follow.
Palate: lively and full-bodied. Following on from the vanilla, fruit, herbs and liquor on the nose, the attack on the palate shows notes of licorice, while flavours of verbena and sage abound.
Finish: long and fresh. With its notes of wormwood and aniseed, the finish follows on from the palate. Its malty, lemony flavours go wonderfully well with a fruity, herbal aftertaste.
Peat: no
CHICHIBU TASOGARE
Like Chichibu Akatsuki, with which it forms a charming duo, Tasogare is made from Concerto peat-dried barley (50 ppm phenols) and aged in bourbon casks. Evolving to the rhythm of oily, ashy, herbaceous, root and saline peat, its aromatic and taste palette takes on more mature and fuller tones as you taste it. Shrouded in an evanescent smoke, it poetically evokes the fading light of dusk.
Nose: fresh and heady. On the first nose, an oily, peppery, saline peat fills the air, becoming more refined with aeration, with notes of white fruit and cut hay. A marvel of balance.
Palate: generous and suave. On the palate, the oily, salty peat takes on empyreumatic tones. Very malty, vanilla-flavoured and infused, the mid-palate becomes more herbaceous, liquorice-flavoured and chocolatey.
Finish: long and smooth. Full of juicy pear and green liquorice, the start of the finish, as well as being peaty, is minty, rooty and malty. The aftertaste is pleasantly grainy, salivating and herbaceous.
Peat: yes
