Nose
Dense sherry: black cherry, lacquer, old leather, and a struck-match edge.
No. 03 · Japanese
Karuizawa 1960
Karuizawa · Nagano
Karuizawa closed for good after 2000. The 1960 vintage, especially cask 5627, became the distillery's myth: a 52-year-old sherry cask, bottled around 2012–2013 with a wooden netsuke. The photograph is that bottle, with the wooden box marked for cask 5627.
Find a bottle
Opens a Wine-Searcher search in a new tab. This catalogue does not sell bottles.
- Distillery
- Karuizawa
- Country / region
- Japan · Nagano
- Style
- Japanese
- Year of release
- 2013
- Age statement
- 52 Year Old, for the famous cask
- Bottles made
- Cask 5627, distilled in 1960, is widely reported to have yielded about 41 commercial bottles at 51.8% ABV, plus two earlier hand-filled prototypes at a higher strength. Other 1960 casks exist, so the vintage alone is not a bottle count.
- ABV
- About 51.8% for the commercial cask 5627; not every 1960 bottle
- Cask type
- Ex-sherry; cask 5627 is the best-documented 1960
- Approximate value
- Top bottles from this vintage have sold at auction in the hundreds of thousands of pounds. A 2026 Sotheby's sale of a prototype from cask 5627 was reported at 625,000 US dollars. Historical results, not offers.
Tasting notes
Palate
Oily and dark, with plum, espresso, clove, and a mineral note from long tropical ageing.
Finish
Endless and dry, incense and cocoa lingering after the fruit.
More japanese
No. 02 · Japanese
Yamazaki 55 Year Old
Yamazaki
Released
2020
Approx. value
Above £50,000, approx.
Studio portrait for this listing
No. 08 · Japanese
Hibiki 30 Year Old
Suntory
Released
Ongoing, when released
Approx. value
About £3,000–£8,000
Studio portrait for this listing
No. 12 · Japanese
Hakushu 18 Year Old
Hakushu
Released
Suspended
Approx. value
About £800–£2,500
Studio portrait for this listing