Karuizawa Hanshin Tigers Mercian Hiyama Limited Edition Team Figurine 24 (2003) 36cl

The Hanshin Tigers are one of the oldest professional baseball teams in Japan. They played their first season in 1936 and currently play in the Nippon Professional Baseball Central League. This lot celebrates players from the 2003 season.

These bottles were produced by Mercian, the former owners of Japan’s legendary Karuizawa distillery.

Filled with Karuizawa single malt!

Karuizawa distillery was established in 1955 in the town of Miyota on the southern slopes of Mount Asama. It began production the following year, producing single malt for the Ocean blends from Daikoku Budoshu. Initially it was difficult for the distillery to obtain malt, but a lift on import restrictions in 1958 meant the distillery was able to experiment with the production of a Speyside-esque product, importing the same golden promise barely used at Macallan, and sherry casks. The subsequent quality of output saw it appearing in Japan as a single malt for the first time in the 1980s. Sadly, the Japanese whisky market was not strong at the time, and Karuizawa was closed in 2001 by owners, Mercian, and eventually dismantled. Its legacy is lives on however, with its still relocated to other distilleries in Japan, but predominantly in the hugely sought-after single cask releases that began to appear in 2007, from independent bottler, Number One Drinks. It is now one of the most prestige single malts on the planet, the reverence for which only grows as the remaining stock continues to thin.

This limited bottling was produced to celebrate the Hanshin Tigers baseball team winning Japan's Central League in 2003.

This 36cl bottle depicts shirt number 24, Shinjiro Hiyama.

37% ABV

36cl

*DUE END JULY 2024*