TENJAKU LIMITED EDITION SHERRY CASK PURE MALT WHISKY
JAPAN
If it's purity you're after in a Japanese whisky, then water is paramount, and this new, limited-production release from Tenjaku — called, appropriately, Pure Malt Sherry Cask — is a gorgeous illustration of how (as the old song goes) you can’t have one without the other.
Distilled and aged entirely in Japan, it is among the smoothest, most delicate whiskies we’ve sipped in a long, long time, from this or any country, with not even a trace of harshness. Tip back the glass, and watch it carry you away.
The venerated master distiller, Kenji Watanabe, has produced this marvel of a whisky from a blend of malts aged three, five, eight, and twelve years. Each component contributes its own temperament: the younger whiskies bringing brightness, the older ones, a kind of gravity.
The final blend was oaked in sherry casks, and can we talk gravity just a bit more? For all the smoothness and delicacy we’ve just talked about, there’s a sneaky complexity and depth here. Figs, prunes, and dark chocolate arrive on the nose, and then the floral alpine distillate reasserts itself underneath, refusing to be subordinated.
Still, the backbone is the water that begins the whole slow, laborious process: pristine ice melt from the southern Alps (aka the Akaishi Mountains), which filters through volcanic rock down to an aquifer 250 meters beneath the Misaka range in Yamanashi Prefecture and delivers beautiful froth and uncommon clarity.
Ringed by the Chichibu mountains, and with Mt. Fuji looming to the south, this is nominally peach and grape country. Or at least that’s how it’s pitched to tourists. But whisky lovers know differently, that this is where you go for one of the great gifts of nature.
No technique has yet been invented that can manufacture this water, which has a softness that is distinct and, to many palates, unmatched.
Watanabe, who has brought decades of winemaking expertise to his blending, knows that this is the foundation, and that everything else he does, is only to build upon it.
We recommend pouring this one neat, and serving it as a kind of aperitif before dinner, where it will do precisely what any great tone-setter/curtain-raiser should: wake the palate up, and leave it wanting more.
Which, by the way, also describes our feelings about this marvelous whisky.
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*Offer NOT valid in-store. This offer is made pre-arrival, with wines estimated to be delivered to your preferred store in Fall 2026. All sale prices are the lowest available at Total Wine & More and ONLY valid through Concierge Sales. No further discounts or coupons may be applied. The price reflected on your order form is subject to change after the order is placed in the event of a change in tariffs or taxes that are imposed by the U.S. government, or in the case of currency fluctuations of 10% or greater. Offer not valid in CT, KS, MA, MI, NC, NY, TN, VA, & WA. This offer will expire on Thursday, July 9, 2026.