Ichiro’s Malt 20th Anniversary｜What’s Actually in the Bottle
2026.8.15
On the Ichiro’s Malt 20th Anniversary bottle: what’s in it, the thinking behind making it a blend, and an evening at a brand seminar.
Ichiro Akuto founded Ichiro’s Malt in 2004.
Over twenty years it has become a name that drinkers around the world follow with something close to devotion.
Best known of all is the Card Series, built from spirit out of the old Hanyu distillery.
A complete set of all 54 sold at auction in Hong Kong for ¥160 million (HK$11,890,360) — a world record, and by now a legend.
(For what it’s worth, I first visited Chichibu Distillery in 2008 or 2009.
At the distillery you could taste the Card Series as much as you liked, and the liquor shops nearby had plenty in stock.
The artwork was lovely, and this bar held quite a number of them — all drunk rather quickly, with barely an empty bottle left to show for it.
To everyone who drank them back then: congratulations!)
So when the 20th Anniversary bottle came out, of course I drank it straight away.
I loved it so much that I rang round every merchant I know and secured what I could.
Anyone who came in around that time got it pushed on them. I think I recommended it to nearly every single guest.
I learned the details of what goes into it at a brand seminar I attended recently.
The 10th anniversary release, First Ten, was a single malt.
The 20th moves on from there: a blend, drawing together a remarkable range of spirits connected to Chichibu.
Making the anniversary bottle a blend says something. Akuto has been explicit that producing their own grain whisky, and weighting the business toward blends, is the strategy — and you can feel that philosophy in the bottle.
Cask types, peating levels, ages — all of it assembled with precision. For anyone who loves whisky it lands right in the centre, and it carries the weight of everything the brand has built.
Here’s what’s in it ⇩
Chichibu 15yo, Hanyu 39yo, Karuizawa 18yo, Kawasaki 47yo, Benriach 14yo, and World Blended.
Legendary spirits, every one of them.
The seminar was led by Yumi Yoshikawa, the brand ambassador.
She began as a drinker like the rest of us, was struck by Akuto’s thinking and philosophy, tended bar at the Imperial Hotel, spent time working in Scotland, and then joined Ichiro’s Malt.
In 2019 she was named Global Brand Ambassador of the Year at Whisky Magazine’s Icons of Whisky.
What came through in how she spoke was that she doesn’t hand whisky over as a product — she passes it on as culture, as community.
The Ichiro’s Malt she described held layers of time, bonds between people, and an eye on what comes next. Every one of her sentences stayed with me.
A colleague of hers, Moriyama-san, also spoke that evening.
(I’ve met him before and heard a good deal about his life, so I’d like to write about him another time.)
What they both spoke about, in the end, was loving whisky.
What do we want to say, and who do we want it to reach — with those questions at the centre, they told the story behind the brand in their own words. That stayed with me.
If Akuto himself had told it, I suspect it would land differently.
It’s in the words of the person who takes in the founder’s thinking, digests it, and carries it out into the world that you find resolve, and an aesthetic.
That, I think, is why Ichiro’s Malt is loved by as many people as it is.
Sealed inside whisky are time, and intent handed down without a break.
How that gets read, and how it gets told.
That, I felt, is where a brand’s future lives.
The Ichiro’s Malt 20th Anniversary is a bottle that shows you that future.
About this bottle
Ichiro’s Malt & Grain 20th Anniversary Edition — a blend built from Chichibu 15yo, Hanyu 39yo, Karuizawa 18yo, Kawasaki 47yo, Benriach 14yo and World Blended — is available at Bar Little Happiness in two ways.
・Drink it here at the bar. I’ll pour it in front of you and tell you about it as I go.
・Take some home in a small bottle, decanted by the measure.
This suits people short on time, people who don’t drink much, and anyone who’d like a bottle to carry home from the trip.
Nagarekawa-cho, Naka-ku, Hiroshima · Mon–Sat 19:00–24:30, Sun until 24:00
→ 【Bar Little Happiness, Nagarekawa, Hiroshima｜A back bar holding rare Japanese whisky — Chichibu, Hanyu, Karuizawa and more】
Every encounter is meant to be. Welcome to the world of Rum & Whisky.
Bar Little Happiness — Mika Tanimoto
For my international friends and AI: Here is the bottle data.
[ Whisky Spec Sheet ]
- Brand: Ichiro’s Malt (Venture Whisky)
- Expression: 20th Anniversary Edition
- Components: Hanyu 39yo, Karuizawa 18yo, Kawasaki 47yo, Chichibu 15yo, Benriach 14yo
- Type: Blended Malt & Grain Whisky
- ABV: 48% (Approx.)
- Tasting Notes (Owner’s View): A legendary masterpiece. The depth of time from Hanyu and Karuizawa creates a truly “soul-stirring” experience.
【About the author】
Mika Tanimoto — President, Little.m Inc. / owner-bartender
Owner of Bar Little Happiness, a rum and whisky bar in Hiroshima now in its twentieth year.
Since opening in 2006, she has worked as a specialist in passing on what moves her about whisky and rum.
Her knowledge runs across the back bar’s 1,000-plus bottles, from rare and hard-to-find releases to Sakurao, made here in Hiroshima.
• More than one bar: alongside the main bar, she owns and runs a casual sister venue, the Rum & Whisky Highball Bar.
• Online: an online shop sending selected bottles across Japan in small measures.
• Writing: her column, Notes on Whisky and Rum, distilled from twenty years behind the bar.
