Hakushu Distillery opened in 1973 — Suntory’s fiftieth year — in forest at the foot of Mount Kaikomagatake in the southern Japanese Alps, near Hokuto in Yamanashi, and its house style is built on that setting: crisp, green, lightly herbal. This edition takes the distillery somewhere else by narrowing the wood to one type. The producer describes it as a blend of malts made at Hakushu and aged exclusively in Spanish oak casks, giving a sweetness and a measured bitterness alongside the soft palate the distillery is known for. The packaging carries tree-leaf motifs from the Hakushu forest, presented as an expression of the harvest season. It was bottled at 43% without an age statement and sold only through duty-free, reaching shelves in late 2023 at the same moment as the Yamazaki Smoky Batch The First — a pair released with so little announcement that the first widely shared evidence of them was photographs taken in airport shops.

Every bottle sold through Midnight Whiskey is sourced as an authentic, sealed product and inspected before it ships. Orders are packed with padded, glass-rated handling and require an adult signature (21+) on delivery; we do not ship to anyone unable to verify legal drinking age. For our full sourcing and handling protocols, see our editorial and authentication standards.

What makes the Hakushu Japanese Forest Bittersweet Edition different from standard Hakushu?

The wood. Suntory describes it as a blend of Hakushu malts aged exclusively in Spanish oak casks, rather than the mixed cask make-up behind the distillery's core bottlings. That single-wood approach pushes the whisky toward a sweeter, sherry-influenced character with a bitter edge, against the crisp and green profile Hakushu is usually known for.

Where was this edition sold?

It was a duty-free exclusive and was never released on the Japanese domestic market, appearing at airport duty-free shops such as Narita from late 2023 at a duty-free price of ¥18,000. It arrived alongside the Yamazaki Smoky Batch The First, and both were noticed first through photographs taken on airport shelves rather than through any announcement.

What does bittersweet mean in the name?

It describes the shape of the whisky rather than a marketing mood. The producer's tasting note gives a sweetly complex but sprightly palate of manuka honey, orange marmalade and cacao, closing on a well-balanced espresso-like bitterness that lingers — sweetness and bitterness as the two halves of the same pour.