Sakurao Brewery and Distillery, the Hiroshima-based maker behind the Sakurao (桜尾) and Togouchi (戸河内) whisky brands, released a new limited single malt on August 7, 2026: Sakurao Sauternes Cask Finish Stillman’s Selection. The company said the whisky was hand-picked by its in-house “stillman” from among its Sauternes-finished casks for its unusually rich aroma, and bottled in limited quantity at 700ml and 46% ABV.
Stillman’s Selection is Sakurao’s tasting-led series, drawn from either of the company’s two maturation warehouses: the coastal Sakurao warehouse, cooled by sea air off the Seto Inland Sea, and the Togouchi warehouse, set deep in the forested Chugoku mountains. According to the release, this bottling comes from Sauternes casks stored at the Sakurao site, chosen for notes the company describes as reminiscent of white peach, ripe apple, and mango, with a muscat-like fruitiness, a smooth palate, and a finish balancing rich sweetness with elegant acidity. The reference retail price is 15,000 yen before tax.
The bottling continues a run of cask-finish experiments from Sakurao Brewery and Distillery, whose Togouchi Rum Cask Finish blended whisky was recently selected as the top entry in the whisky category at Les Spiritueux de l’année, a French spirits competition, an award announced in March 2026. The distillery, whose roots as a shochu and sake maker in Hatsukaichi date back to 1918, has built out a modern whisky and gin operation on the same site over the past decade.
Why it matters outside Japan
Sakurao has been building an international profile well beyond this one bottle. In April 2025, the Sakurao single malt collaborated with the Italian amaretto liqueur Disaronno at the Tokyo International Bar Show, its first such pairing, and the company’s gin, Sakurao Gin Original, has picked up multiple international awards of its own. In October 2025, Sakurao Brewery and Distillery entered a capital and business tie-up with Mitsui & Co.’s investment arm, a sign of ambitions to grow beyond its current scale. None of this confirms an export plan for the Sauternes Cask Finish Stillman’s Selection itself, and the company has not listed international stockists for this limited run. But for whisky drinkers in the US, UK, and elsewhere who know Sakurao mainly through occasional imports, the combination of a French spirits award, an Italian liqueur collaboration, and fresh outside investment suggests a distillery angling for a bigger stage than its Hiroshima base might suggest.
Source: PR TIMES / Sakurao Brewery and Distillery (Japanese)
Leave a Reply