On March 10, two of the final casks from the fabled Japanese distillery, owned by Sukhinder Singh, will be auctioned off at Christie's.
Likely to be the last opportunity for collectors to purchase a full cask of Karuizawa whisky, the auction closes a chapter on what has become one of the most remarkable stories in the spirits world.
In a whisky world increasingly reliant on spectacle, Karuizawa’s ascent to legendary status feels almost contrarian. There was no grand plan, no choreographed mythology. What carried Karuizawa into the collective reverence of serious whisky drinkers worldwide was something far more stubborn and rare: a total, unflinching appreciation of spirit character.
This was a whisky that never tried to please. Distilled at the foot of an active volcano (Mount Asama), shaped by long fermentation and originally distilled through direct coal-fired stills, Karuizawa was dense, muscular, and uncompromising. The sherry cask maturation had formidable intensity, but it didn’t polish or soften the spirit – it wrestled with it.
The results were dark, resinous, fiercely structured whiskies, bristling with incense, black cherry, bitter cocoa, and an umami depth that felt brutish. It eschewed the traditional virtue of ‘Japanese elegance’. The distillery’s high altitude and surrounding climate also meant that, rather unusually, its maturing casks increased in alcoholic strength, rather than diminishing over time.
Karuizawa didn’t purr; it growled. And yet, for years, almost no one was listening.
The distillery was mothballed in 2000, its fate seemingly sealed by shifting domestic tastes and economic reality. Remaining casks sat in warehouses, largely unwanted. The plan, such as it was, bordered on tragic: blend them away, dump what couldn’t be used, and erase the name with administrative finality. When the distillery was tragically demolished in 2016, it seemed Karuizawa would dissolve quietly into the footnotes.
What changed everything was not a corporate rescue or a marketing masterstroke, but the intervention of a handful of whisky obsessives who understood exactly what was at stake.
Spirits importers No.1 Drinks’ Marcin Miller and David Croll; Sukhinder (The Whisky Exchange, now Elixir Distillers); and Thierry Bénitah (La Maison du Whisky), collectively recognized that these casks represented something vanishingly rare: a distillate that could never be replicated. They began selecting and bottling Karuizawa not to modernize it, but to let it speak, almost always at full cask strength: unfiltered and unapologetic.
When those first releases began to circulate, the whisky community didn’t just take notice, but recalibrated. Here was Japanese whisky stripped of its politeness and precision, replaced instead by power and emotional weight. These whiskies grabbed you by the palate and demanded your attention.
“I discovered Karuizawa in 2006 when a friend of mine in the Netherlands bottled a single cask, and I remember it intrigued me because of the label,” Sukhinder explains.
“It had this Japanese girl with a very short skirt tossing a caber. And I was like, ‘What the heck is that?’, thinking it was a joke. And again, after trying it, I was left thinking, ‘what is this?’ It doesn’t make sense, but it’s really interesting. When Marcin [Miller] told me the story – how he had access to some of this stock from a mothballed Japanese distillery – I was very interested. So, we bottled a few casks – the first in 2009, which was either a 1981 or a 1984.”
Even then, with his interest piqued, Sukhinder could never have imagined what Karuizawa would become.
“There was an opportunity to buy the whole lot,” he says. “But it was too rich for me, and a lot of it got blended away, which was a shame. About 18 months later, a smaller parcel of about 40-50 casks became available, and I chose 35: we were really picky and about 15 weren’t up to scratch.”
“Hindsight,” he says, with a shrug of the shoulders.
“But for me, everything’s more than packaging. It is always about liquid, liquid, liquid. I just loved it.”
Prices for Karuizawa bottlings hit their peak in the post-pandemic boom, but, like the rest of the secondary market, demand has dropped significantly since then. Does this worry Sukhinder, with the impending auction looming?
“For me, these two remaining casks are really special. They’re from 1999, so some of the last Karuizawa to be distilled.”
Sukhinder Singh
“It’s not just Karuizawa, it’s everything, because of the cult and the craziness for all things Japanese. It’s sad because there are a few bottlings out there that aren’t that great, that have given it a bad name.
“Whenever I open some of ours [most recently at an exclusive Karuizawa bar experience for Whisky Live Paris with 20-30 bottles on show to try], you realize how amazing a whisky it really is. I want to host some events around the world with more of these bottlings, just to get people back into why it’s so genuinely incredible.”
The casks up for auction each contain enough whisky to fill an estimated 420 bottles, and Christie’s have put a guide price of £2m ($2.7m) against each of them. At that price, the owner would be paying £4,700 ($6,400) per bottle before all the associated costs – a significant amount in today’s market.
“For me these two remaining casks are really special,” Sukhinder says. “They’re from 1999, so some of the last Karuizawa to be distilled. In 2012, I was initially offered cask #6195 and then, by accident in the warehouse, I saw cask #888 sitting right next to it, so I had to have that too.
“They’ve spent most of their life maturing in Japan at the old Karuizawa site until it was demolished, then moved to the Chichibu distillery, before I decided to move them to Scotland in 2019 [to reside at the Tormore distillery, owned by Elixir] to continue maturing for the last six-seven years.”
Part of Karuizawa’s magic was its elevation, which intensified the spirit over time. Moving to Chichibu and then to Scotland would have reversed that process, a factor that will come into any serious bidder’s thinking.
Sukhinder says: “I think the important part is, the main structure of the whisky is developed in the first 15-20 years, and all that happened in Japan, so what we’ve done, by bringing it to Scotland, is to slow that mellowing down. They might have become really spicy and big, but what I absolutely love about them is the balance between fruit and sherry.”
Funds from the sale will go towards the development of Portintruan, Elixir Distillers’ new project on Islay. It may be the end to a long chapter in Sukhinder’s remarkable life, but it breathes new life into a new one.
“We’ve had a lot of fun with Karuizawa,” he says. “We’ve done some beautiful bottlings, with whisky to match, so I’m really happy. It’s time to let someone else enjoy themselves with it.”
So, Karuizawa endures, not because it was rescued, but because it was properly understood. In a category often dazzled by whiskies with only the merest veneer of intrigue, it remains a timely reminder that true greatness in whisky is never announced. It must be discovered.
For more details on the auction, visit: christies.com
Tasting Notes
Karuizawa Cask 6195 | 1999 | Ex-Sherry Butt | 61.8% ABV
Nose: Initial notes of blackberries, a touch of raspberry leaf, Japanese incense sticks, and a distinct savory note, with an almost smoky, dry meatiness and intense dried fruit. With a touch of water, there’s dark chocolate, a waft of vanilla, and highly polished leather. Intriguing and dark.
Palate: Initially quite malt-driven, with a subtle dried fruit emerging from the background (apricots and dates). More dark chocolate, some lighter woody spice, and then, with water, citrus oil and a profound nuttiness.
Finish: Punchy and drying, with lingering oak tannin and earthiness, alongside a touch of bitter orange.
Score: 90/100
Karuizawa Cask 888 | 1999 | Ex-Sherry Butt | 57.7% ABV
Nose: Definitively Karuizawa, with a bold and heady earthiness, licorice, fragrant incense, and deep, dark sherry spiciness, with a more pronounced charred barbecue meatiness and spice. Water brings out a more aromatic side: red berries, milk chocolate, and polished mahogany.
Palate: Sweeter fruitiness, with a touch of hedgerow jelly, some slight funk, almost rancio in style, along with a bitter dark chocolate note, the further you venture in. A touch of water brings an elegant citrus zest and a broader dried fruit sweetness.
Finish: Rich and lingering, with the sweet fruitiness holding its own against a backdrop of sherry-driven oak tannins and dried prune.
Score: 92/100
Find our top recommended Karuizawa bottlings on Tasting Notes.
