WHITE OAK DISTILLERY
A Rising Star of Japanese Whisky
The White Oak distillery is located in the city of Akashi facing the Seto Inland Sea.
According to whisky author Dave Broom, “the White Oak distillery is perhaps the least known of Japan’s whisky producers, but it has a legitimate claim to be the country’s oldest with a license to make whisky granted in 1919 - four years before Yamazaki was even built”.
As the distillery is mostly used to produce two of Japan’s most popular alcoholic drinks – sake and shochu – the whisky stills are only in operation for one month every year resulting in a miniscule annual whisky production quantity. White Oak is the only whisky in the world distilled by a sake ‘Grand Master’ and is renowned for its unique and exceptional flavour profiles.
The White Oak maturation process occurs in an area which becomes very hot in the summer. This extreme heat means that the casks impart a much stronger flavour on the whisky in far less time than other places such as Scotland, as well as the evaporation (AKA the "Angels' Share") being around 7-8% annually rather than the standard 2%.
Due to the tiny output, most of White Oak’s whisky goes into blends. Only a handful of selected barrels are aged for long enough for single malt bottling – these are named ‘Akashi’ as a tribute to the hometown.
These sensational, ultra-rare whiskies are released in extremely limited quantities.
To learn more about the flavour profile of each whisky in our White Oak range, please visit our store.
