KANOSUKE SINGLE MALT WHISKY
Single Barrel #21494 “A Pacific Ocean Collaboration” jointly selected by Acorn LTD (Japan) and K&L (USA) 2024MASH BILL – 100% malted barley
PROOF – 114
AGE – 5 years 5 months (2 years 9 months in an ex-bourbon barrel; then 2 years 8 months in an ex-Cognac cask)
DISTILLERY – Kanosuke Distillery
PRICE – $228
WORTH BUYING? – ultimately no, given the $$$
In November 2024, I received samples of the Kanosuke core line up from their American rep, and since then I seem to bump into Kanosuke everywhere. Kind of like how when you consciously hear a word for the first time, and then suddenly you’re hearing it all the time. People may have been using it all around you, you just weren’t yet aware of it, but now it’s all you can hear.
That’s how the bottle featured in this post came to be on my home shelf. Turns out a member of my local whisky social media group is now a brand ambassador for Kanosuke. He alerted the rest of us in the group to the bottle’s arrival in the US. It’s a unique collaboration between two liquor retailers, one Japanese and one American. Both pitched in to buy this barrel. The bottles it yielded were divided between them, and two separate labels were designed for each.
Even though Kanosuke only opened in 2017, they already have such a following in Japan that the Japanese allotment of this release sold out in minutes. Kanosuke just started hitting the US whisky scene recently, and Japanese whisky tends to be very expensive here, so, as I write this there are still some bottles of the American allotment available at K&L.
And how is it? Here we are, two weeks after uncorking and three pours into the bottle. These brief notes were taken using a traditional Glencairn.
COLOR – warm honeyed ambers with gold and straw highlights
NOSE – lovely subtle peat and woodland campfire smoke, salty sea air, dry oak, rough stone like granite, faint hints of sweet tropical fruit, melon, vanilla
TASTE – the fruit notes amp up here, along with the vanilla and now a bit of bright caramel, all outlined by bitter drier notes like oak, smoke, and sand
FINISH – the sweet fruit and candy notes now lean tart, the drying oak, stone, and sand notes grow a touch edgier in concert with the substantial ABV
OVERALL – at once sweet and edgy, maritime and woodland
The bitter aspects etched around the central sweet notes of this whisky remind me immediately of the Kanosuke core line-up’s core notes. Four variations into my journey with Kanosuke, a house style would seem to be discernible.
The nose is inviting, like a cool dry woodland in autumn, the ocean just far enough over the hills to accent the air with its salt and sand. Then on the taste the melon and tropical fruit notes rush in alongside more vanilla, bringing a central sweetness to balance the dry earthiness. In the end, though not particularly intense, the finish does linger, balancing what the nose and taste have to offer.
As with the core Kanosuke offerings, this bourbon and cognac casked release also has a certain roughness to its bitter edges. While not unappealing, this gives the whisky a youthful swagger that comes across to me as both bold and sloppy. As Kanosuke whiskies age—if they are allowed to age, and the distillery doesn’t stick to ~5-year offerings—I can imagine them eventually balancing their sense of braggadocio with a bit more refinement and sensitivity.
The price is steep. I don’t quite regret it. But this was indeed a costly curiosity, and I certainly don’t see myself shelling out for Kanosuke at this price again. Even their core line-up did not earn its $80 to $120 price-range for my tastes. It’s good whisky. The quality is very evident. But I find it to be as of yet too uneven for the $$$.
I’ll look forward to checking back in with Kanosuke in another handful of years or so, to see how they’ve continued to evolve.
Kanpai!
Last Call
As with the Kanosuke standard single malt release, I put some of this K&L / Acorn LTD single cask to use in a cocktail—another tasty riff on the Kanosuke Sour:
2oz Kanosuke Single Malt Cask Strength Single Barrel
1oz Meyer lemon juice
0.5oz sage honey syrup
0.25oz Bordiga Amaretto
Shake and double strain
The Right Spirit 