Hanyu 1990 The Wave #9305 (Batch II) is a 19-year-old single malt distilled at Hanyu Distillery in 1990, matured in a single oloroso-style cask #9305 and bottled in 2009 at cask strength 53% volume. Limited to 200 bottles, this is Batch II of The Wave series — labelled with Hans Dillesse's reinterpretation of Hokusai's famous wave, a cultural bridge between Japanese artistic heritage and European bottle-collecting tradition.
LOST DISTILLERY: Hanyu Distillery, operating in Saitama until 2000, produced Japanese single malt with a distinctly European sensibility in its cask selection — particularly for sherry wood. Cask #9305 represents the oloroso signature at its most characteristic: dates, walnuts, toffee, soy sauce, vanilla and old wood. These flavours are not found in any living Japanese distillery in quite this configuration — they are the specific product of Hanyu's house style, preserved by a decade and a half in oak.
SERVING: at 53% volume, this is more approachable than many lost-distillery releases. In a Glencairn, neat first — the oloroso richness presents itself fully: dense, dark, a sticky-toffee-pudding core with savoury depth. Add five drops of water — the marzipan and panna-cotta notes emerge. Add ten — the chestnut and old-wood complexity opens. The Wave is best appreciated slowly, over thirty to forty-five minutes, watching it evolve in the glass.
MORE
