Ichiro’s Malt brings back Chichibu The Peated after 4 years

Venture Whisky (ベンチャーウイスキー), the company behind Ichiro’s Malt, will release Ichiro’s Malt Chichibu The Peated 2026 in early November, according to a release report published October 22, 2026 by the Japanese whisky news site JP Whisky (jpwhisky.net). It is the first edition of The Peated since 2022, a four-year gap for one of the most collected lines from Chichibu (秩父), the small Saitama distillery that helped start Japan’s craft whisky boom. The new bottling is a single malt built entirely from heavily peated spirit, and it goes on sale in Japan at 17,600 yen including tax.

The specification is short. The whisky is bottled at 50% ABV in a 700ml bottle, and the label lists only domestic malt whisky as the ingredient. Venture Whisky has not disclosed an age statement or the number of bottles. According to the company’s description, the core of the vatting is heavily peated malt matured in ex-bourbon barrels, layered with spirit from oloroso sherry casks and from hogsheads that were rebuilt at the distillery’s own cooperage. The company’s blender notes describe a rich smoke with almond, granola and kumquat on the nose, apple, banana and honey on the palate, and a ginger-like spice leading into a citrus finish. Those are the producer’s words. We have not tasted the whisky.

A short history of The Peated

The Peated has appeared irregularly rather than every year. JP Whisky’s own history of the line lists editions in 2013, 2015, 2016, 2018 and 2022. The 2013 release used only spirit distilled in 2010, two years after the stills first ran, and its label stated a malt phenol level of 59.6ppm, firmly in the range Scottish producers would call heavily peated. That edition was limited to 6,700 bottles. The 2015 bottling was released at cask strength, without chill filtration or added color, in an edition of 5,980 bottles, and the 2016 edition used spirit distilled in 2012, bottled at 6,350.

The 2026 edition breaks with the early pattern in two ways. It is bottled at a set 50% rather than at cask strength, and the bottle count has not been announced. Both point to a larger vatting drawn from a wider range of casks than the early, single-vintage editions. JP Whisky also noted that resale listings for the 2026 edition had already appeared on a Japanese flea-market app by October 22, before the bottle was on shelves.

Why this matters

Peat has been part of Chichibu’s identity almost from the start. Founder Ichiro Akuto (肥土伊知郎) opened the distillery in 2008 with Scottish-made Forsyths stills and fermenters cut from native mizunara oak, and laid down peated spirit in its earliest years. Our Chichibu distillery guide covers the long fermentation, floor malting and wide seasonal temperature swings that shape the house style. Because Chichibu is small, every peated cask set aside for The Peated is a cask that cannot go into other releases. A four-year gap says more about how carefully the distillery rations that stock than about any change of direction.

The cask recipe is also telling. Using hogsheads reassembled at the distillery’s own cooperage is consistent with Akuto’s long-stated aim of controlling as much of the process as possible in Chichibu itself, from floor-malted barley to locally cut mizunara. For readers who want the background on why distilleries rebuild and re-size casks, our guide to Japanese whisky cask types explains the hogshead, the barrel and the butt.

The release lands in a crowded peated field. Over the past few weeks we have reported on Saburomaru’s set of 24 peated whiskies and a limited Mars Komagatake Peated × Sherry bottling, while Akkeshi and Hinokami continue to build around smoke. Ten years ago, heavily peated Japanese single malt was a niche. Today it is one of the main ways young distilleries try to stand apart from the lighter house styles of Suntory and Nikka. Our explainer on peated Japanese whisky sets out who uses peat and where it comes from. Chichibu was one of the first to take that route, and The Peated is still a reference point for the category.

For readers outside Japan

The Japanese announcement does not mention an export allocation, and Venture Whisky has not published an international release date or overseas price. Chichibu single malts are usually allocated market by market through Venture Whisky’s importers, in small numbers and at prices above Japanese retail, and earlier editions of The Peated have followed that pattern. In the US, Venture Whisky’s importer is Skurnik Wines & Spirits. An overseas allocation is the most likely route for this edition too, but until an importer confirms it, treat it as a Japan release. If you are in the UK, the specialist shops in our UK buying guide are the ones to watch. US readers can use our US buying guide and sign up for restock alerts rather than waiting to spot a bottle on a shelf.

Two cautions apply. First, do not pay a large premium for early resale listings. Japanese retail is 17,600 yen, and the number of bottles has not been announced, so nobody yet knows how scarce this edition really is. Our guide to buying Japanese whisky at auction covers how to judge a fair secondary price. Second, ordering directly from a Japanese shop is not a simple workaround. Many Japanese retailers will not ship spirits abroad, and some countries, including the US, restrict or block personal imports by post. Our guide to importing whisky from Japan explains what actually works.

If you want Chichibu character that is easier to find abroad, Ichiro’s Malt & Grain is the brand’s most widely exported bottle. It is a world blend rather than a Chichibu single malt and is not heavily peated, so it is a different drink, but it is the Venture Whisky bottle you are most likely to see on a shelf outside Japan. Visitors to Japan should note that the distillery does not run regular public tours. Its one public open day each year, held the day before the Chichibu Whisky Matsuri festival, sells out quickly. The Chichibu distillery hub collects our coverage of the brand in one place.

Source: JP Whisky (Japanese)