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 (23.7 US fl oz) 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, or about 16,500 yen once Japan’s 10% consumption tax is added.
The company’s own description of the series is worth reading closely. It says the two warehouses produce different spirits because of their different environments, and that the stillman draws on more than 100 years of inherited distilling skill to pick the casks. It also names an “estery” fruit character that opens up on the palate as the house signature the stillman looks for. Those are the company’s words, not our tasting notes. We have not tried this bottling, and we are not going to describe how it tastes.
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. Our Sakurao distillery guide covers that history in full, from the old Chugoku Jozo company to the custom hybrid stills installed for the centenary.
Sakurao has also 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.
Why this matters
Sakurao is one of the clearest examples of a pattern running through Japan’s newer distilleries: an old drinks company with decades of blending and maturation experience, but only a few years of spirit from its own stills. The company sold whisky for most of the 20th century, yet it only began distilling malt on its current coastal site in January 2018, and its first single malts under the Sakurao and Togouchi names reached shelves on July 1, 2021. A cask-finish release in 2026 therefore draws on stock that is still young by Scottish standards. Finishing in wine casks is one of the main tools a young distillery has to add depth and variety without waiting a decade or more.
Sauternes casks are a deliberate choice within that toolkit. Sauternes is a sweet white wine from Bordeaux, and casks that held it are prized for the fruit and honeyed sweetness they can lend to a spirit. They are also harder to source in volume than the sherry and bourbon casks that dominate Japanese warehouses. Our guide to Japanese whisky cask types explains why distilleries reach for wine casks and what they can and cannot change about a young spirit.
The two-warehouse setup is the other part of the story. The Togouchi warehouse is the former railway tunnel in the Hiroshima mountains where the company has aged whisky since around 1990, long before it ran its own stills. Our Togouchi guide explains that site. Sakurao now markets the contrast between sea air and mountain tunnel as a reason to buy single-cask-style selections from each location. That is a story Scottish distilleries tell about coastal versus inland maturation, and Sakurao is clearly learning to tell it in its own terms. Combined with the French award, the Disaronno collaboration and the Mitsui investment, this release reads less like a one-off and more like a distillery steadily building a premium range it can take abroad.
For readers outside Japan
Be realistic about this specific bottle. It is a limited domestic release with no announced overseas distribution, so the most likely way to find one is in person in Japan, at specialist liquor shops or department stores shortly after release. Our guide to where to buy Japanese whisky in Tokyo lists the kinds of stores where small-batch releases like this tend to appear. Limited runs from smaller distilleries often sell through quickly, so a bottle seen months later may well be gone.
If you are tempted to order one from a Japanese retailer for delivery abroad, check your own country’s rules first. Several major markets restrict or block personal imports of spirits by post, and many Japanese shops simply do not ship alcohol overseas. Our explainer on importing Japanese whisky from Japan walks through what is and is not practical before you pay for a bottle you cannot receive.
The more practical route is to start with the Sakurao and Togouchi bottlings that already reach specialist importers abroad, then watch for future Stillman’s Selection releases if the company widens distribution. Our country guides to buying Japanese whisky in the US and in the UK list the retailers most likely to carry smaller Japanese distilleries. For other young producers taking a similar path, browse our A to Z of Japanese whisky distilleries. We will report any confirmed export plan for this series if Sakurao announces one.
Source: PR TIMES / Sakurao Brewery and Distillery (Japanese)
Company site: Sakurao Brewery and Distillery official website (Japanese)