Kamiki Malt

About the Kamiki Malt

Kamiki Malt is a blended malt whisky from Soni Village in Nara Prefecture, Japan. Japanese malt whiskies are blended here with malts sourced from around the world. The spirit is then married with spring water from the Soni highlands. It is bottled at 48% and never chill-filtered. The name joins two words, kami for god and iki for breath. That points to Mount Miwa, the sacred peak that rises nearby. The distillery sits in a restored building over a century old, the first whisky distillery in Nara. Casks of oak carry the first maturation. What follows is the unusual part. The spirit moves into casks made from Yoshino sugi, the Japanese cedar that grows in the forests of Nara. No whisky brand had finished spirit in cedar before. Batches are blended when the flavour peaks, not to a fixed recipe. Cedar and sandalwood lead the nose, with vanilla and a dry note of spice behind them. The palate turns sweeter. Caramel and honey arrive first, then clove and green tea cut across them. Wood runs through all of it, more incense than oak plank. The finish is long and woody, with sandalwood and a trace of old wood. Nothing here shouts, which is part of the appeal. Most Japanese whisky leans on bourbon barrels, sherry butts, or mizunara oak. Kamiki Malt takes a different road with sugi, a softwood nobody had used for whisky. The wood gives incense and temple air rather than the coconut sweetness mizunara is known for. Because each batch is blended by taste, no two releases match exactly. That makes this bottling a genuine oddity in Japanese whisky, and an easy one to remember.