The Tottori Ex-Bourbon Cask: Matsui's Spicier, Bolder Blend

We already pour Matsui's gin, The Hakuto. This is the whisky side of the same house, and it's a different temperament entirely.

What It Is

The Tottori is a blend of malt and grain.

The malt is double distilled in copper pot stills at Matsui's own Kurayoshi Distillery. The grain comes from undisclosed distilleries in Japan, which is standard practice for blends at this level and worth being straightforward about.

Non-age statement, aged up to five years, and proofed with the soft groundwater from Mount Daisen, the same water behind their gin.

Why This One Is Different

There's a standard Tottori. This is the ex-bourbon cask expression, and the cask policy is the whole difference.

It's aged in a combination of new charred American oak and first-fill ex-bourbon barrels.

Both of those are aggressive. New charred oak gives vanilla, caramel and a lot of wood spice fast. First-fill bourbon barrels still hold plenty of the bourbon that was in them, so they give more than a refill cask would.

Matsui's house character is fruit-forward and soft. Putting it into two of the most giving cask types available pushes it somewhere considerably spicier than the standard bottling.

What's in the Glass

Nose: Grilled corn, cherry, a green herbal note

Palate: Spicy — red apple skin, peanut shell, ginger

Finish: Warm vanilla, cinnamon, oak tannin

Non-chill filtered at 43%. Skipping chill filtration keeps the fatty acids that carry texture and mouthfeel, which is why this feels fuller than the strength suggests.

How to Drink It

The bourbon-cask character makes it the most cocktail-friendly Japanese whisky on our shelf. It's very good in an old fashioned and stands up in a highball without disappearing.

Neat is fine. A rock softens the tannin if the spice is too forward for you.

Pair It With

The bourbon influence wants sweet and charred. Yakitori with tare, unagi don, pork kakuni, tebasaki.

Also good with dorayaki at the end.

Try It at Juraku

The Tottori Ex-Bourbon Cask is on the whisky list at Izakaya Juraku, Lower East Side, and available by the bottle.