Hombo Shuzo (本坊酒造) will release Single Malt Komagatake Peated × Sherry (シングルモルト駒ヶ岳 Peated × Sherry) in early October 2026, the first bottling in a new limited series spun off from its core Komagatake single malt. Announced on September 30, the whisky pairs peated malt spirit from the Mars Komagatake distillery (マルス駒ヶ岳蒸溜所) in Nagano with sherry cask maturation, and 12,000 bottles are being filled. It is the second change to the Komagatake line in a month, after a 200ml size of the standard single malt went on sale in mid-September.
What is in the bottle
According to the release, the whisky is peated malt from Komagatake matured in sherry casks. It is bottled at 50% ABV in a 700ml bottle with its own carton, at a suggested retail price of ¥9,900 including tax. Hombo has not disclosed an age statement, distillation years, the peating level in ppm or the style of sherry cask used.
The company frames the release as “another face” of Komagatake. The standard Single Malt Komagatake, made a permanent product in 2025, is vatted from the distillery’s range of spirits for a consistent, clean and rich house style, and sells at 45% ABV for ¥7,920. The new limited series is meant to step away from that profile. Hombo’s own notes for this edition mention orange peel, honey, peat smoke and a bittersweet sherry finish; we have not tasted it. The label shows a Japanese serow (ニホンカモシカ), the goat-antelope that is Nagano’s prefectural animal, set in the landscape around the distillery, with packaging colors meant to suggest dawn.
The distillery behind it
Mars Komagatake sits at 798 meters in Miyada (宮田村), at the foot of the Central Alps, and opened in 1985. Hombo, a Kagoshima shochu maker, first made whisky in 1949 and moved into full-scale production in Yamanashi in 1960 under the design of Kiichiro Iwai (岩井喜一郎). The Nagano site stopped distilling malt during the long slump in Japanese whisky demand and restarted in 2011. Today Hombo runs two distilleries, Komagatake and Tsunuki (津貫) in Kagoshima, plus an aging cellar on Yakushima. Our guide to the distillery uses its former name, Mars Shinshu, which it carried until 2024.
What it means outside Japan
The announcement covers Japan only and says nothing about export. Mars whiskies, including Komagatake single malts and the Iwai blends, are already distributed in several overseas markets, and a limited run of 12,000 bottles is large by Japanese craft standards, so this edition has a better chance of reaching foreign shelves than a hotel or bar exclusive. That is not confirmed, and buyers abroad should expect any imported bottles to cost well above the Japanese price. For drinkers following smoky Japanese whisky, the release adds a sherry-cask option to a field that already includes the heavily peated malts of Saburomaru in Toyama and Hombo’s own peated spirit from Tsunuki.
Source: PR TIMES / Hombo Shuzo (Japanese)