Only 500 bottles were released worldwide. At the World Whiskies Awards 2020, it was named the World’s Best Blended Limited Release.

Ichiro’s Malt & Grain Japanese Blended Whisky Limited Edition 2020 is more than a rare bottling. It brings together whisky from three names that represent different moments in Japanese whisky history: Chichibu, Hanyu and Kawasaki.

Chichibu remains active today. Hanyu and Kawasaki do not. Their surviving stocks are finite, making this a blend whose composition cannot simply be recreated indefinitely.

500 bottles, then the world’s top limited-release blended whisky

The 2020 Limited Edition was bottled at 48.5% ABV in 700ml format, with production limited to 500 bottles.

At the World Whiskies Awards 2020, it was first recognised as Best Japanese Blended Limited Release before receiving the title World’s Best Blended Limited Release.

Its significance therefore lies not only in scarcity, but in how the blend itself was judged on the international stage.

Chichibu, Hanyu and Kawasaki in a single blend

The whisky combines malt from Chichibu Distillery and the closed Hanyu Distillery with grain whisky from the closed Kawasaki Distillery.

Chichibu, founded by Ichiro Akuto, began whisky production in 2008 and has since become one of the defining names in modern Japanese whisky. Hanyu and Kawasaki belong to an earlier chapter, and the remaining spirit from those distilleries cannot be replenished.

That gives the 2020 Limited Edition an unusual sense of continuity: active production and lost distilleries brought together in one bottle.

Whisky that cannot be replaced once it is used

Closed-distillery stock carries a different kind of rarity. Every time it is selected for a blend, there is less left for the future.

For this reason, the importance of Limited Edition 2020 is not explained by the figure of 500 bottles alone. Its character also depends on a combination of whiskies that belongs to a finite historical inventory.

Fresh mint, gentle peat and a powerful structure

The World Whiskies Awards described the whisky as rich and powerful, with fresh mint, subtle peaty notes and a slight sulphury nuance.

At 48.5% ABV, it carries enough weight to show the layered character of its component whiskies while retaining a clear, cooling lift through the palate.

A bottle that preserves several chapters of Japanese whisky

Chichibu, Hanyu and Kawasaki each occupy a different place in the story of Japanese whisky.

Limited Edition 2020 brings those chapters together. Its rarity is numerical, but also historical: once these older stocks are gone, this particular relationship between past and present disappears with them.

Availability at IMAMI

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For in-store product availability, please enquire at IMAMI Ginza or IMAMI Shinsaibashi, or contact us.

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