Matsui Shuzo The Matsui The Peated Single Malt Whisky 700ml

Smoke is the whole argument here. The Matsui The Peated is the Kurayoshi Distillery's answer to a question Japanese whisky rarely asks this directly: what does heavily kilned, peat-dried barley taste like when it is distilled on the San'in coast and raised in Japanese warehouses rather than on a Scottish island?

Distilled by Matsui Shuzo in Tottori Prefecture from peated malted barley, this single malt completes the distillery's core trio alongside the Sakura and Mizunara casks. While its siblings speak in wood — cherry blossom on one hand, temple incense on the other — The Peated speaks in fire, ash, and sea air, bottled at the same assertive 48% ABV as the rest of the line.

The nose rolls out campfire smoke, roasted grain, and a saline, coastal edge. Underneath, the distillate's sweetness pushes back: honeyed barley, baked apple, and vanilla thread through the peat rather than drowning in it. The finish is long and embered, drying to warm ash with a mineral aftertaste that invites the next sip.

Peat devotees will find familiar comfort at full strength, while newer drinkers can add water and watch the smoke loosen into softer, sweeter registers. It is a natural match for oysters, yakitori glazed in tare, or a rainy evening — and persuasive evidence that Japanese peat can carry its own identity instead of echoing Islay's.

• Size: 700ml
• ABV: 48% (96 proof)
• Age: No age statement
• Origin: Tottori Prefecture, Japan
• Distillery: Matsui Kurayoshi Distillery
• Style: Peated single malt Japanese whisky
• Composition: Peated malted barley
• Cask/Aging: Matured in oak casks
• Tasting Notes: Campfire smoke, honeyed barley, baked apple, brine, warm ash finish