Written by Mika Tanimoto, Owner-Bartender, Bar Little Happiness — Hiroshima’s specialist whisky & rum bar with 1,000+ bottles
The Araside single cask from Chichibu Distillery’s second year of production — 2009 vintage, released decades later as a single cask expression — is one of those bottles that whisky specialists talk about in terms that can sound extravagant until you taste it and understand that the extravagance is warranted.
Chichibu Distillery opened in 2008. The Araside expression comes from 2009 — a time when the distillery was still finding its footing, when the equipment was still being broken in and the production team was still in the early stages of understanding their particular equipment and water. For a whisky from that era to be as complete as Araside is, says something significant about what Ichiro Akuto was doing from the very beginning.
The Name
Araside (荒川サイド) refers to the Arakawa River side — the geographical position of one of Chichibu’s maturation sites relative to the local river. Single cask names at Chichibu often carry this kind of specific, location-grounded reference that rewards local knowledge.
What It Tastes Like
This is a whisky that shows its age gracefully: the new make character that would have been present in a young Chichibu expression from 2009 has been completely transformed by the years in cask. What remains is layered fruit — dried stone fruit, a hint of tropical sweetness — alongside the clean, precise base spirit that Chichibu’s careful production approach always produces.
The shock of encountering this bottle is not that it is good. It is that it is this good, from this early in the distillery’s history.
Araside and other Ichiro’s Malt / Chichibu expressions are available at Bar Little Happiness. Read the full Japanese column: little-happiness.jp/columns/araside-chichibu-singlecask-whisky/
Bar Little Happiness | Hiroshima, Japan
Rum & Whisky specialists | 1,000+ bottles | English menu available
Open Mon–Sat 7PM–12:30AM, Sun 7PM–midnight
No cover charge. Walk-ins welcome.
english.little-happiness.jp