Hakushu Distillery Exclusive Single Malt Review
Shelf Review
Designed to give you all the quick hit information you need when you’re standing in front of your local liquor store’s whisky shelf.
If you’re lucky enough to be wandering Japan and step into the many whisky shops you’ll find along your travels, you might come across this mystery of a bottle. It’s a 300ml bottle that comes in a small, nondescript cardboard box with an illustration of Suntory’s Hakushu distillery carefully etched below a single English line of “Single Malt Whisky”. It’s 43% ABV and comes with a very prominent number on the front. My bottle is No. 1344376 – which I assume corresponds to a specific barrel but I have no information to corroborate this notion. This is a distillery only bottling of Hakushu ( likely released a few years ago) and since you almost never see anything from Hakushu outside of official bottlings, I picked it up for $50. Let’s see if the mystery pays off.
Age: Non-Age Stated
ABV: 43%
Cask: Unknown
MSRP: Around $15 at launch, and now closer to $50 for older bottlings like this.
Distillery Name: Hakushu Distillery
Review Date: 11/20/25
Nose: Lemon peel, honey, floral, vanilla, green tea, with a soft and gentle character that features no peat.
Palate: Clean minerality accented by green herbal notes, white chocolate, milk cream, tropical melon, rose water with a subtle heat and good mouthfeel.
Finish: Surprisingly long finish. White pepper, salted sea air, smoked meats, and candy corn.
Score: 85
Would I buy again? The calculus here is simple: are you willing to spend $30-50 on a mystery bottle? If the answer is yes, then it doesn’t matter what this tastes like – get it. With this Hakushu expression, you’re buying the possibility of great whisky. And while this exact bottling #01344376 didn’t blow me away, it provided a side of Hakushu that I haven’t found in any of the official bottlings. So, if I come across this opportunity again – I would absolutely pick up another bottle to get another chance to look behind the Hakushu curtain.
