Ken's Choice Jazz Chichibu Double Cask North American Whiskey / Blue Giant Explorer

The Ichiro's Malt brand is produced by Japanese firm, Venture Whisky, and is named after their founder, Ichiro Akuto. Venture Whisky was established in 2004 after Ichiro acquired the remaining unblended stocks of single malt from his grandfather's Hanyu distillery. Ichiro's Malt was born the following year, with the release of the original 'Card' series single casks of Hanyu. The company then opened its own distillery in 2008, the increasingly sought-after Chichibu. In addition to bottling these two single malts, the Ichiro's Malt brand has also produced a number of sought after blended whiskies like this over the years.

This is a particularly unusual bottling of blended North American whiskey, a vatting of a single cask of American whiskey filled in 2013, and a single cask of Canadian whiskey filled in 2011. These were matured for a period in their countries of origin, then for a further period of time in the warehouses of Chichibu distillery in Japan. The whiskies were relocated in 2014 & 2015 respectively, and vatted and bottled in 2024. This was bottled for Tokyo whisky legend, Ken Matsuyama, as part of the Jazz series, this time titled Blue Giant Explorer.

One of 371 bottles.